Thus it is that a neutron star in a binary star system gets to spend its retirement years as a millisecond radio pulsar.

ECONOMIST: The dizziest, giddiest stars

This follows the discovery last year by Maciej Konacki, of the California Institute of Technology, of a gaseous giant orbiting a star that is itself orbited by a binary-star system.

ECONOMIST: Planetary science: When a world is born | The

The pulsar and white dwarf pair emit gravitational waves and the binary star system gradually loses energy.

WSJ: Einstein Proved Right on Gravity��Again

Even stars that are born far away from a giant are still likely to be part of a binary or triple star system.

ECONOMIST: Planetary formation

Now, an international team of astronomers has trained the Fermi space-based gamma ray telescope on V407 Cygni, a "binary" system comprising a white dwarf star and a red giant companion, 9, 000 light-years away.

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Astronomers using the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) in Hawaii discovered the four star pairs, each of which is a binary system in which two stars circle each other in less than four hours.

MSN: 'Impossible' stars found in our galaxy - Technology & science - Space - Space.com | NBC News

KELT-2Ab orbits a star that is slightly bigger than the sun, within a binary system called HD 42176.

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Our sun does not orbit another star, but roughly half of the stars in our Milky Way galaxy do, as part of a binary system.

MSN: 'Impossible' stars found in our galaxy - Technology & science - Space - Space.com | NBC News