Stars aligned: An atlas of binary stars

The latest star data from the Gaia space observatory has for the first time allowed astronomers to generate a massive 3D atlas of widely separated binary stars within about 3,000 light years of Earth — 1.3 million of them. The one-of-a-kind atlas, created by Kareem El-Badry, an astrophysics Ph.D. student from the University of California, Berkeley, should be a boon for those who study binary stars — which make up at least half of all sunlike stars — and white dwarfs, exoplanets and stellar evolution, in general. Before Gaia, the last compilation of nearby binary stars, assembled using data from the now-defunct Hipparcos satellite, included about 200 likely pairs. For full story, visit: news.berkeley.edu https://news.berkeley.edu/2021/02/22/binary-stars-are-all-around-us-new-map-of-solar-neighborhood-shows/ Video animation: Jackie Faherity, AMNH, and data by Kareem El-Badry Edited by Roxanne Makasdjian music: Glacier by Patrick Patrikios http://news.berkeley.edu/ http://www.facebook.com/UCBerkeley http://twitter.com/UCBerkeley http://instagram.com/ucberkeleyofficial