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Contrast Multiple Stars

General Information

  1. A multiple star is simply two or more stars which revolve around each other much like the Earth orbits the Sun.

  2. With the unaided eye, they can’t be seen as individual stars because they are too far away and too close together. A good analogy is the headlights of a distant car.

  3. This multiple star is special because you can see two different colors. The red or yellow star is cooler than the blue star.

  4. Often the cooler star will be brighter than the hotter star. This can lead into a discussion on how the sizes of stars, along with their temperatures, affect how bright they are.

  5. Perhaps as many as one-third to half of the stars in the sky are multiple stars.

  6. At least one multiple star system has as many as 9 components.

  7. Note that our sun is just an ordinary star.

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