Comments on: Tau Boo Back Flips (magnetically)

By: john lee

john lee — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 18:33:42 +0000

How recently did it happen and were there any biogenics involved.

By: pamela

pamela — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 01:39:36 +0000

Hi Robert – The two stars are orbiting the center of mass of the two stars (which is basically invisible), and the two stars always keep that point between them, preventing collision.

By: ROBERT DUNN

ROBERT DUNN — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 20:14:36 +0000

I was looking at Tau Boo A and B in orbit on the program Celestia. They appear to have orbits that cross each other and also are on the same plane. But what I see that is weird is that they appear to be orbiting two diffent hidden stars. And when in close range they excellerate each other yet never collide. I upped the speed on Celestia and it amazes me. Is this accuarate? Do they really do that? And if so, what are they orbiting? Weird.

By: Colin J

Colin J — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 16:32:41 +0000

Very cool. Kinda twists you all up in knots to think about it.

By: pamela

pamela — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 15:35:02 +0000

Yes, the terminology, in all its confusing glory is as follows:

Tau Boo A and Tau Boo B are binary stars

Tau Boo b is a planet orbiting Tau Boo A (technically, it probably should be Tau Boo A b, But I don’t think I’ve ever seen it written that way).

By: ydant

ydant — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 15:28:32 +0000

The name of the image “taubootis” is a fun word to say as well.

So Tau Boo A and Tau Boo B are the stars and Tau Boo b is the planet that orbits TBA? I’m a little confused on that.

This sounds similar to the behavior with the gas giants as discussed on Astronomy Cast where the parts of the planet spinning at different speeds causes weird things to happen. It’s a very cool phenomena to think about – it’s way too easy to think of planets and stars as being very solid objects…