Discover the fascinating world of double stars and optical illusions in the night sky. Join us on a stargazing adventure to differentiate between visually close stars and binary star systems. The universe's unintuitive wonders await your exploration! 🌠
Transcript:
Early tonight Face west and look right overhead. That bright star you see is Arcturus. Now look a little more north to find a dimmer pair of stars—that’s Rho Bootis and Sigma Bootis. They’re so close together, many call them a “double star.”
But double stars just aren’t what most people think.
That term can fool you. They’re not a pair. It’s an optical illusion.
See, Sigma is about fifty light years away while Rho is more than three times farther. They have nothing to do with each other.
But visually it looks like they do. This is the case with almost every pair of stars you see with your eyes.
Now don’t get me wrong, two stars can occupy the same system. But they’re just so far away from us and so close to each other that they typically look like a single point of light. Now those are called binary star systems.
So let’s recap. Double stars aren’t what you think, and binary stars look like one.
Forever the unintuitive universe.
We hope you’re alright with that.