Perpustakaan Digital ITB

Stars with masses more than eight times that of the Sun are most often found in binary systems, in which two stars orbit their common centre of mass. Such high-mass stars lead rapid and violent lives, supply the Universe with a large portion of its heavy elements and can be the progenitors of binary black-hole systems that produce gravitational waves1. Writing in Astronomy & Astrophysics,Sana et al. 2 report that high-mass stars in young binaries have longer orbital periods than those in older ones. These results could be used to test predictions based on theories of the formation of high-mass stars, and suggest that mechanisms act to reduce the orbital periods of stars in binaries during their adolescence.