Summary: Is our Sun part of a binary star system?
The binary star system consists of two white dwarfs—the burnt-out cores of sunlike stars.
Those in a binary star system may have a strong enough gravitational pull to gather in material from a neighboring star.
Analysis of the X-ray data shows that the point sources are associated with binary star systems that contain a neutron star or black hole that is pulling matter away from a normal star.
More thanhalf of all stars are binary stars, or two stars that are bound by their mutualgravitational attraction, with each star orbiting around the center of mass.
At the nebula's center is a young binary star system that surely powers the nebula but does not, as yet, explain its colors.
Based on the eclipses, the team calculates that the binary stars are just 20 percent and 69 percent the mass of our sun.
