ASTRONOMY and ASTROPHYSICS -- LARSONIAN Binary Star Formation ! About half of all the stars in the galaxy in the vicinity of the sun are binary or double. But orthodox astronomers and astrophysicists still have no satisfactory theory about how they form or why there are so many of them. But binary star systems are actually a LIKELY CONSEQUENCE in the comprehensive GENERAL UNIFIED Theory of the Physical Universe developed by the late Physicist Dewey B. Larson. I will try to summarize Larsons explanation, which is detailed in Chapter 7 of his book "THE UNIVERSE OF MOTION" and in some of his other books. First of all, according to Larson, stars do NOT generate energy by "fusion". A small fraction comes from slow gravitational collapse. The rest results from the COMPLETE ANNIHILATION of HEAVY elements (heavier than IRON). Each element has a DESTRUCTIVE TEMPERATURE LIMIT. The heavier the element is, the lower is this limit. A star's internal temperature increases as it grows in mass via accretion, and absorption of the decay products of cosmic rays, gradually reaching the destructive temperature limit of lighter and lighter elements. When the internal temperature of the star reaches the destructive temperature limit of IRON, there is a Type I SUPERNOVA EXPLOSION! This is because there is SO MUCH iron present; and that is related to the structure of iron atoms and the atom building process, which Larson explains in some of his books [better than I can]. When the star explodes, the lighter material on the outer portion of the star is blown outward in space at less than the speed of light. The heavier material in the center portion of the star was already bouncing around at close to the speed of light, because of the high temperature. The explosion pushes that material OVER the speed of light, and it expands OUTWARD IN TIME, which is equivalent to INWARD IN SPACE, and it often actually DISAPPEARS from visual sight for a while. Over long periods of time, both masses start to fall back gravitationally. The material that had been blown outward in space now starts to form a RED GIANT star. The material that had been blown OUTWARD IN TIME starts to form a WHITE DWARF star. BOTH stars then start moving back toward the "MAIN SEQUENCE" from opposite directions on the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram. The chances of the two masses falling back into the exact same location in space, making a single lone star again, are near zero. They will instead form a BINARY system, orbiting each other. According to Larson, a white dwarf star has an INVERSE DENSITY GRADIENT (is densest at its SURFACE), because the material at its center is most widely dispersed (blown outward) in time. This ELIMINATES the need to resort to MATHEMATICAL FANTASIES about "degenerate matter", "neutron stars", "black holes", etc.. LARSONIAN Solar System Formation If the mass of the heavy material at the center of the exploding star is relatively SMALL, then, instead of a single white dwarf star, there will be SEVERAL "mini" white dwarf stars (revolving around the red giant star, but probably still too far away in three-dimensional TIME to be affected by its heat, etc.). These will become PLANETS! In Chapter 7 of THE UNIVERSE OF MOTION, Larson used all this information, and other principles of his comprehensive GENERAL UNIFIED Theory of the Physical Universe, to derive his own version of Bode's Law. http://library.rstheory.com/books/uom/07.html . A WEALTH of Information about the GENERAL UNIFIED Theory of the Physical Universe developed by the late Physicist Dewey B. Larson can be found at the web site http://www.rstheory.com . Robert E. McElwaine B.S., Physics and Astronomy, UW-EC P.S.: PASS IT ON !