Star System
The two brightest components of this system, Gl 667 A and Gl 667 B, are orbiting each other at an average angular separation of 1.81 arcseconds with a high eccentricity of 0.58. At the estimated distance of this system, this is equivalent to a physical separation of about 12.6 AU, or nearly 13 times the separation of the Earth from the Sun. Their eccentric orbit brings the pair as close as about 5 AU to each other, or as distant as 20 AU, corresponding to an eccentricity of 0.6. This orbit takes approximately 42.15 years to complete and the orbital plane is inclined at an angle of 128° to the line of sight from the Earth. The third component, Gl 667 C, orbits the Gl 667 AB pair at an angular separation of about 30", which equates to a physical separation of about 56 to 215 AU.
Read more about this topic: Gliese 667
Famous quotes containing the words star and/or system:
“Far star that tickles for me my sensitive plate
And fries a couple of ebon atoms white....”
—Robert Frost (18741963)
“To care for the quarrels of the past, to identify oneself passionately with a cause that became, politically speaking, a losing cause with the birth of the modern world, is to experience a kind of straining against reality, a rebellious nonconformity that, again, is rare in America, where children are instructed in the virtues of the system they live under, as though history had achieved a happy ending in American civics.”
—Mary McCarthy (19121989)