Sunday, 14 June 2015

mass - What are the masses of the two stars (given the information provided)?

We can assume that the stars are equal in mass, and their orbits are circular



The orbital speed is 80000 m/s and at an orbital period of 10 months (or 2.628times107s) the length of the orbit is 2.1024times1012 m or 14.05 AU The radius of the orbit therefore is 14.05/tau = 2.237AU.



The version of Keplers law given is T2=fraca3m1+m2



substituting T2=(10/12)2=0.6944 (divide by 12 to convert to years) and a3=11.19 gives m1+m2=frac11.190.6944=16.12mathrmsolarmass.



Since m1=m2, the mass of each star is 8.06 solar masses, or 1.6times1031kg

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