THE DOUBLE STARS
Examining individual stars of the heavens more in detail, thousands of
them are found to be double; not the stars that appear double to the
naked eye, as Theta Tauri, Mizar, Epsilon Lyrae, and others; but pairs of
stars much closer together, and requiring the power of the telescope to
divide or separate them. Only a very few seconds apart they are or, in
many cases, only the merest fraction of a second of arc. Some of them,
called binaries, are found to be revolving around a common center,
sometimes in only a few years, sometimes in stately periods of hundreds
of years. Many such binary systems are now known, and the number is
constantly increasing. Castor is one, Gamma Virginis another, Sirius
also is one of these binaries, and a most interesting one, having a
period of revolution of about 52 years.
Aitken, of the Lick Observatory, in his work on binary stars, directs
special attention to the correlation between the elements of known
binary orbits and the star's spectral type, and presents a statistical
study of the distribution of 54,000 visual double stars, of which the
spectra of 3919 are known. That the masses of binary systems average
about twice that of the sun's mass has long been known, and this fact
can be employed with confidence in estimates of the probable parallax
of these systems. Aitken applies the test to fourteen visual systems
for which the necessary data are available, and deduces for them a mean
mass of 1.76 times that of the sun. For the spectroscopic binaries the
masses are much greater.
Triple, quadruple and multiple stars are less frequent; but many
exceedingly interesting objects of this class exist. Epsilon Lyrae is
one, a double-double, or four stars as seen with slender telescopic
power, and six or seven stars with larger instruments. Sigma Orionis and
12 Lyncis, also Theta Cancri and Mu Bootis are good examples of triple
stars.