In astronomy, a contact binary is a binary star system whose component stars are so close that they touch each other or have merged to share their gaseous...

a bilobated, peanut-like overall shape. Contact binaries are distinct from true binary systems such as binary asteroids where both components are separated...

considered a binary because they are different kinds of objects. Astronomy portal Binary asteroid Binary star Contact binary Contact binary (small Solar...

theory Binary system (astronomy), a system of two celestial bodies on a mutual orbit Binary asteroid Binary star Contact binary Contact binary (asteroid)...

A binary star or binary star system is a system of two stars that are gravitationally bound to and in orbit around each other. Binary stars in the night...

A binary asteroid is a system of two asteroids orbiting their common barycenter. The binary nature of 243 Ida was discovered when the Galileo spacecraft...

A binary number is a number expressed in the base-2 numeral system or binary numeral system, a method for representing numbers that uses only two symbols...

Saturn . For TNOs there is some confidence in the diameters, but for non-binary TNOs there is no real confidence in the masses/densities. Many TNOs are...

9×1018 kg (thus density of 1.0g/cm3). It is thought that Hektor might be a contact binary (two asteroids joined by gravitational attraction) like 216 Kleopatra...

Pan (prov. designation: 1987 SY) is a highly eccentric asteroid and contact binary, classified as a potentially hazardous asteroid and near-Earth object...

An Interacting binary star is a type of binary star in which one or both of the component stars has filled or exceeded its Roche lobe, also known as a...

Selam, formal designation Dinkinesh I, is a 220 m (720 ft) contact binary and natural satellite of the main belt asteroid 152830 Dinkinesh. It was discovered...

Comet Tuttle in January 2008 by the Arecibo Observatory show it to be a contact binary. The comet nucleus is estimated at 4.5 km (2.8 mi) in diameter, using...

object of the Apollo group, approximately 1 kilometer in diameter. The contact binary was discovered on 24 April 1977, by American astronomer Charles Kowal...

same atmosphere, giving the system a peanut shape. While most such contact binary systems are stable, some do become unstable and either eject one partner...

close together that their outer envelopes are in direct contact, making them a contact binary system. As a result, they have the same stellar classification...

Since then radar observations of other asteroids have found other contact binaries. Castalia is a potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA) because its minimum...

11066 Sigurd (provisional designation 1992 CC1) is a stony contact binary asteroid classified as near-Earth object of the Apollo group of asteroids, approximately...

V1309 Scorpii (also known as V1309 Sco) is a contact binary that merged into a single star in 2008 in a process known as a luminous red nova. It was the...

During the flyby, the Lucy spacecraft discovered that Dinkinesh has a contact-binary natural satellite, named Selam, which is 220 meters (720 ft) in diameter...

envelope binary Binary star Binary system (astronomy) Contact binary Post common envelope binary Paczyński, B. (1976). "Common Envelope Binaries". In Eggleton...

Kitt Peak's 4 m telescope. Occultations suggest it is a compact or contact binary equivalent to a sphere 400 to 500 km in diameter. On 20 November 2020...

shape, which is two distinct 0.9 km lobes in contact (a contact binary). 4179 Toutatis – a contact binary asteroid that is in a non-principal axis rotation...

mi) from the surface on 20 April 2025, revealing the asteroid to be a contact binary. It was named after American paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson, the...

of a gentle, low-velocity collision of two objects, and is called a contact binary. The "terraces", layers of the interior of the comet that have been...

VFTS 352 is a contact binary star system 160,000 light-years (49,000 pc) away in the Tarantula Nebula, which is part of the Large Magellanic Cloud. It...

Kleopatra is a contact binary – if it were spinning much faster, the two lobes would separate from each other, making a true binary system. List of exceptional...

formed. The most primitive planetesimals visited by spacecraft are the contact binary Arrokoth. The word planetesimal is derived from the word infinitesimal...

V1309 Scorpii is a luminous red nova that followed the merger of a contact binary in 2008. In January 2015, a luminous red nova was observed in the Andromeda...

showed that the satellite was actually two objects in direct contact, known as a contact binary. The discovery of Dinkinesh's satellite brought the total...