Talk:Beta Lyrae

animation

The animation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Eclipsing_binary_star_animation_3.gif is great, but is flawed because it indicates perspective. The stars' apparent size changes as they rotate. Any star system viewed from Earth would have such little perspective that it would not be perceivable. The apparent sizes would, thus, remain constant. JasonAD 19:52, 14 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Why are you assuming that the animation is meant to represent an earth-based perspective? It clearly is not. Dlabtot (talk) 04:52, 25 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

SavantIdiot (talk) 19:46, 14 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Binary?

I'm confused. The lead sentence describes Beta Lyrae as a binary star system, but the text says it is actually made up of 4 stars. I don't know much about astronomy but this seems to be a contradiction. Dlabtot (talk) 03:10, 25 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It's poor wording. Beta Lyrae is a binary star system located in a cluster of stars. The 'extra' stars are not part of the binary beta Lyrae system but are located close by on the sky. Some, but not all, of the extra stars are also located near by beta Lyrae spatially too. Because they all appear close to each other on the sky, their designations are beta Lyrae [letter]. Beta Lyrae A generally refers to the binary then letters B-F refer to the other stars. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.253.144.50 (talk) 21:38, 4 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I tried rewording it but I am afraid I am out of my depth. Perhaps you could give it a try? Dlabtot (talk) 21:51, 4 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I was "bold" and yanked the information about the optical companions since it is non-notable and obviously confusing.—RJH (talk)

Not a Black Hole candidate any more!

Soon after black holes were recognized as end-states of some stars, first Edward Devinney and then Robert Wilson published claims that beta-Lyrae was such a case. Nature 234, 406 - 407 (17 December 1971); doi:10.1038/234406a0 The other early candidate was Epsilon Aurigae. Neither is consider to have a black hole component nowadays. SavantIdiot (talk) 19:56, 14 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Is a planet able to exist?

I'm trying to know if a planet is able to exist in the connexion between the two parts of Sheliak (Beta Lyrae). My goal is a planet able to sustain life, preferably Earth-like; is situated in the barycenter of rotation of the two components; and (I guess) doesn't perform planetary translation.

Any help is thanked, I don`t really know who to ask right now. Alphayate (talk) 16:24, 4 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Two problems.

A single O type star is unable to produce a planet, as its stellar wind would instantly disrupt a protoplanetesimal that even attempts to form. Also it would be ionised by radiation.
In Beta Lyrae, there is an influx of gas onto an OB type star from a smaller donor star. This influx of gas means that, even if a protoplanetesimal were to form, it would flow straight into the blue straggler.

Edit of edit (talk) 08:27, 27 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]