Jason Kendall's Intro to Astronomy Course

View the entire video series

Module 7: Measuring the Properties of the Distant Stars

04: Binary Stars Again: Eclipses, Masses and Planets

Video References

• References for Module 7: Measuring the Properties of the Distant Stars
  • Supplement the videos with "OpenStax Astronomy"
    • 3.3: Newton's Universal Law of Gravitation
    • 17: Analyzing Starlight
    • 18: The Stars, a Celestial Census
    • 19: Celestial Distances
  • 04: Binary Stars Again: Eclipses, Masses and Planets
    • Binary stars are some of the most important stars to study, as they are the gateway to astrophysics. We can determine their masses and we can determine many other things about them. So, here we chat more about spectroscopic and eclipsing binaries, and how a planet about the size of Earth was found orbiting the star nearest to the Sun.
    • Algol
    • On a Revision of Certain Spectroscopic-Binary Orbits, by R. F. Griffin
    • Binary Stars in General
    • Stellar Masses
    • The sky around Alpha Centauri and Proxima Centauri (annotated)
    • The motion of Proxima Centauri in 2016, revealing the fingerprints of a planet
    • SuperWASP Observations of Variable Stars
    • Algol at AAVSO
    • Main-Sequence Effective Temperatures from a Revised Mass-Luminosity Relation Based on Accurate Properties
    • The location of Proxima Centauri in the southern skies
    • Proxima Centauri and its planet compared to the Solar System
    • Artist's impression of the planet orbiting Proxima Centauri
    • Pale Red Dot: A search for Earth-like planets around Proxima Centauri
    • Powerful Flare from Star Proxima Centauri Detected with ALMA; puts habitability of nearby system into question