Artist’s impression of eclipsing binary

This video shows an artist’s impression of an eclipsing binary star system. As the two stars orbit each other they pass in front of one another and their combined brightness, seen from a distance, decreases. By studying how the light changes, and other properties of the system, astronomers can measure the distances to eclipsing binaries very accurately. A long series of observations of very rare cool eclipsing binaries has now led to the most accurate determination so far of the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud, a neighbouring galaxy to the Milky Way and crucial step in the determination of distances across the Universe.

Credit:

ESO/L. Calçada

About the Video

Id:eso1311b
Release date:6 March 2013, 19:00
Related releases:eso1311
Duration:36 s
Frame rate:30 fps

About the Object

Category:Stars

HD


Large

Large QT
2.5 MB

Medium

Video Podcast
3.6 MB
Medium MPEG-1
15.2 MB
Medium Flash
3.6 MB

Small

Small Flash
1.6 MB
Small QT
927.1 KB

For Broadcasters