Part of JME-05 — Gravitation

Binary Star System

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Two stars of masses m1 and m2 separated by distance d orbit their common centre of mass.

Time period: T = 2pisqrt(d3d^3 / (G(m1+m2)))

Each star orbits the CM: r1 = m2*dm1+m2\frac{d}{m1+m2}, r2 = m1*dm1+m2\frac{d}{m1+m2}

Both have the same angular velocity: omega = 2*pi/T

This extends Kepler's third law to binary systems. JEE Advanced sometimes asks this, and JEE Main occasionally tests the basic concept.

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