astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...

, a contact binary is a

binary star A binary star or binary star system is a system of two stars that are gravitationally bound to and in orbit around each other. Binary stars in the night sky that are seen as a single object to the naked eye are often resolved as separate stars us ...

system whose component stars are so close that they touch each other or have merged to share their gaseous envelopes. A binary system whose stars share an envelope may also be called an overcontact binary. The term "contact binary" was introduced by astronomer

Gerard Kuiper Gerard Peter Kuiper ( ; born Gerrit Pieter Kuiper, ; 7 December 1905 – 23 December 1973) was a Dutch-American astronomer, planetary scientist, selenographer, author and professor. The Kuiper belt is named after him. Kuiper is consi ...

in 1941. Almost all known contact binary systems are

eclipsing binaries A binary star or binary star system is a system of two stars that are gravitationally bound to and in orbit around each other. Binary stars in the night sky that are seen as a single object to the naked eye are often resolved as separate stars us ...

; eclipsing contact binaries are known as

W Ursae Majoris variables A W Ursae Majoris variable, also known as a low mass contact binary, is a type of eclipsing binary variable star. These stars are close binaries of spectral types F, G, or K that share a common envelope of material and are thus in contact with one ...

, after their archetype star, W Ursae Majoris. In a contact binary, both stars have filled their

Roche lobe In astronomy, the Roche lobe is the region around a star in a binary system within which orbiting material is gravitationally bound to that star. It is an approximately teardrop-shaped region bounded by a critical gravitational equipotential, ...

s, allowing the more massive primary component to transfer both mass and luminosity to the secondary member. As a result, the components in a contact binary often have similar

effective temperature The effective temperature of a body such as a star or planet is the temperature of a black body that would emit the same total amount of electromagnetic radiation. Effective temperature is often used as an estimate of a body's surface temperature ...

s and luminosities, regardless of their respective masses. The rate of energy transfer between the components is dependent on their mass ratio and luminosity ratio. In cases where the stars are in geometric contact but the thermal contact is poor, there can exist wide differences between their respective temperatures. Contact binaries are not to be confused with

common envelope In astronomy, a common envelope (CE) is gas that contains a binary star system. The gas does not rotate at the same rate as the embedded binary system. A system with such a configuration is said to be in a common envelope phase or undergoing comm ...

s. Whereas the configuration of two touching stars in a contact binary has a typical lifetime of millions to billions of years, the common envelope is a dynamically unstable phase in binary evolution that either expels the stellar envelope or merges the binary in a timescale of months to years.

References

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See also

References