contact binary

American  

noun

Astronomy.

1. a binary system in which the envelopes of gas surrounding each star are in contact.

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Example Sentences

As Lucy sent more data back to Earth, the researchers discovered something surprising: Selam was not just one moon, it was a contact binary -- or two moons melded together.

From Science Daily

The latter turned out to be "an extraordinarily unique and complex body," Merrill said -- a so-called "contact binary" consisting of two lobes that are essentially rubble piles stuck together, and the first of its kind seen orbiting another asteroid.

From Science Daily

Contact binary systems seem to be fairly common throughout our solar system, but scientists hadn't seen one orbiting another asteroid prior to Dinkinesh, Lucy's deputy project scientist John Spencer said in the statement.

From Scientific American

Apophis is shaped like a peanut shell, a form astronomers call a “contact binary.”

From Los Angeles Times

And perhaps most importantly, the contact binary is a member of the “cold classical” family of bodies in the Kuiper Belt—objects in sedate, circular orbits that have scarcely interacted with anything else since their formation more than four billion years ago, at the solar system’s dawn.

From Scientific American