Start Date

2020

Description

A contact binary star system consists of two stars orbiting each other so closely that they share a common atmosphere (Figure 1). Nearly 1% of stars like our sun are contact binaries, yet there is not a comprehensive model of their lives. Our goal is to understand the formation, life, and explosive demise of these objects. This summer we used MESA, a stellar modeling program, paired with a Python program to model the lives of contact binary stars.

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Jan 1st, 12:00 AM

Using MESA to Test Our Theory of Contact Binary Star Evolution

A contact binary star system consists of two stars orbiting each other so closely that they share a common atmosphere (Figure 1). Nearly 1% of stars like our sun are contact binaries, yet there is not a comprehensive model of their lives. Our goal is to understand the formation, life, and explosive demise of these objects. This summer we used MESA, a stellar modeling program, paired with a Python program to model the lives of contact binary stars.