double star
1
5.5
- noun
- /ˈdʌbəl stɑr/
- Specialized
:
estrella doble
- Al Risha appears single, but it is a close double star; that is, two stars orbiting a common center of gravity.
- double star system
- a bright double star
Examples
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Whether I find a star cluster or a galaxy, a red star or a bright double star, is really up to the sky, not me.
Academic text (1994) -
Many amateur astronomers enjoy tracking the movements of the double stars that appear together in the night sky.
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There are many stars, double stars known with short periods of this kind.
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And occasionally there are double stars which are so close that they touch and star stuff flows between them and around them.
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It's a double star.
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More importantly, a new class of black-hole double stars has been found among the so-called soft X-ray transients.
Academic text (1995) -
The successive German directors conducted various astrometric surveys, including precise determinations of positions of nebulae, double stars, and circumpolar stars.
Academic text (2005) -
WZ Cas (near Beta Cas) is a nice example of a colored double star (spectral types N and A, distance 58?, around mag 8).
Blog text (28) -
With a telescope, you can observe the stunning double star Albireo, which consists of a golden and a blue component.
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The double star system Theta Aurigae is an excellent example of two stars that orbit each other closely in space.
Synonyms
3
4.7
Two stars in space that move around a shared point because they pull on each other
3
6.6
Two stars that orbit each other
A system of two stars that orbit each other
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is directly compositional: 'double' = twofold and 'star' = a celestial object, so a B1 learner who knows both words will infer it means two stars seen together. This is a straightforward, cross-linguistically common formation (equivalent to 'binary/paired star' in other languages), so the meaning is immediately derivable from the constituents.
Etymology
The noun double star comes from the simple image of two stars seen very close together in the sky: double means two and star means a star. Often the two are pulled by gravity so they move around each other, which is why the term describes 'a pair of stars that appear or move together'.