Massive stars are often found in close binary system, two stars that orbit each other. So far the data samples analyzed were still relatively small and limited to stars in our own galaxy.
New results from a large extensive survey of the TMBM (Tarantula Massive Binary Monitoring) survey (PI H. Sana) contain data for over a hundred massive hot binary stars, the largest homogeneous sample to date and the first of this size outside our own galaxy. In the first paper, Leonardo Almeida, presents the survey and first results. The They show that the properties are very similar as found in earlier studies. These results point at binarity being a universal phenomenon for massive stars.
The paper “The Tarantula Massive Binary Monitoring: I. Observational campaign and OB-type spectroscopic binaries” by L.A. Almeida, H. Sana, W. Taylor, R. Barbá, A. Bonanos, P. Crowther, A. Damineli, A. de Koter, S.E. de Mink, C.J. Evans, M. Gieles, N.J. Grin, V. Hénault-Brunet, N. Langer, D. Lennon, S. Lockwood, J. Maíz Apellániz, A.F.J. Moffat, C. Neijssel, C. Norman, O.H. Ramírez-Agudelo, N.D. Richardson, A. Schootemeijer, T. Shenar, I. Soszyński, F. Tramper & J.S. Vink is available on the arxiv.
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