APS Excellence in Physics Education Award
November 2019

Education Prize Logo
Science SPORE Prize
November 2011

NSF Logo
The Open Source Physics Project is supported by NSF DUE-0442581.

Eclipsing Binary Stars Documents

This material has 2 associated documents. Select a document title to view a document's information.

Main Document

Eclipsing Binary Stars 

written by Mario Belloni

Eclipsing Binary Stars model simulates the detection of eclipsing binary stars. In this method, the light curve from the combination of the two stars, and how it changes over time due to each star transiting (or being occulted or eclipsing the other), is observed and then analyzed. In this simulation each star orbits the other in circular motion via Kepler's third law.  When one star passes in front of the other (transits), it blocks part of the starlight of the other star. This decrease in starlight is shown on the graph.  In the simulation the binary star system is shown as seen from Earth (edge on view) and from overhead, but magnified greatly, and with the star sizes not shown to the scale of the orbit. The mass, radius, and temperature of each star can be changed.

The simulation uses either simple 3D or Java 3D (if installed) to render the view the stars. If Java 3D is not installed, the simulation defaults to simple 3D using Java.

The Eclipsing Binary Stars model was created using the Easy Java Simulations (EJS) modeling tool.  It is distributed as a ready-to-run (compiled) Java archive.  Double clicking the ejs_astronomy_eclipsing_binaries.jar file will run the program if Java is installed.

Last Modified June 4, 2014

This file has previous versions.

Source Code Documents

Eclipsing Binary Stars Source Code 

The source code zip archive contains an XML representation of the  Eclipsing Binary Stars Model.   Unzip this archive in your EJS workspace to compile and run this model using EJS.

Published July 15, 2010
Last Modified June 4, 2014

This file has previous versions.

OSP Projects:
Open Source Physics - EJS Modeling
Tracker
Physlet Physics
Physlet Quantum Physics
STP Book