binary system
noun
: binary star
also
: a similar system containing bodies (such as black holes) other than stars
Examples of binary system in a Sentence
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Every 78 to 80 years, the white dwarf in this binary system accumulates enough material from its companion red giant star to trigger a thermonuclear explosion.
—
Jamie Carter, Space.com, 2 Mar. 2025
Writing to a Jesuit missionary in China, Leibniz floated the idea that the binary system might help to convert the Chinese to Christianity, by familiarizing them with the Biblical concept of creation ex nihilo.
—Anthony Gottlieb, The New Yorker, 6 Jan. 2025
Around 50% of stars with masses around that of the sun exist in a binary system with another star.
—Robert Lea, Space.com, 20 Feb. 2025
There is some evidence that the protostar here is not a single object but actually a pair, a binary system with the two components orbiting each other fairly close together (separated by about 2.7 billion kilometers, about the same distance between Uranus and the sun).
—Phil Plait, Scientific American, 13 Feb. 2025
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Jamie Carter, Space.com, 2 Mar. 2025
Writing to a Jesuit missionary in China, Leibniz floated the idea that the binary system might help to convert the Chinese to Christianity, by familiarizing them with the Biblical concept of creation ex nihilo.
—Anthony Gottlieb, The New Yorker, 6 Jan. 2025
Around 50% of stars with masses around that of the sun exist in a binary system with another star.
—Robert Lea, Space.com, 20 Feb. 2025
There is some evidence that the protostar here is not a single object but actually a pair, a binary system with the two components orbiting each other fairly close together (separated by about 2.7 billion kilometers, about the same distance between Uranus and the sun).
—Phil Plait, Scientific American, 13 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for binary system
Cite this Entry
“Binary system.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/binary%20system. Accessed 20 Mar. 2025.
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