Plaskett's binary (also known as HD 47129) in the constellation Monoceros is a star system of two blue giant stars. The orbital speed of both stars has been found to be 250km/s and the period is 14.4days. Assuming that both stars are of equal mass, determine the mass of each star. (Optional problem. Hint: use your intuition about the orbits of these stars.)
Stellar evolution
We may see thousands of stars in the dark sky. Our universe consists of billions of stars. Stars may appear tiny to us but they are huge balls of gasses. Sun is a star of average size. Some stars are even a thousand times larger than the sun. The stars do not exist forever they have a certain lifetime. The life span of the sun is about 10 billion years. The star undergoes various changes during its lifetime, this process is called stellar evolution. The structure of the sun-like star is shown below.
Red Shift
It is an astronomical phenomenon. In this phenomenon, increase in wavelength with corresponding decrease in photon energy and frequency of radiation of light. It is the displacement of spectrum of any kind of astronomical object to the longer wavelengths (red) side.
Plaskett's binary (also known as HD 47129) in the constellation Monoceros is a star system of two blue giant stars. The orbital speed of both stars has been found to be 250km/s and the period is 14.4days. Assuming that both stars are of equal mass, determine the mass of each star. (Optional problem. Hint: use your intuition about the orbits of these stars.)
Given:
Orbital speed of the stars = 250 km/sec = 250,000 m/s
Period of the star = 14.4 days
Suppose mass of each star = m kg
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