How close are Spectroscopic Binary stars?

[foxx]

I've been wandering through the World Generation section of 2300AD and noticed what I think is a missing part of a sentence. On page 39, under the seciton for Companion Star Orbit Radii, it states...

Spectoscopic Binary: Orbit is 1D10 times au.

It goes on to state...

Others: Orbit is 1D10 au.

I might be foggy in the head, but I think that spectroscopic binaries should read "Orbit is 1D10 times ___ au" instead, so that they are different than Others.

Can anyone provide an answer to this one?

 

[shaunhilburn]

How close are spectroscopic binaries?

It depends. They're only 'spectroscopic' from Earth's POV. They can't be resolved into separate components from Earth, and the binary nature is only detectable from the doppler shifts as they orbit.

They're no different than any other binary system, what makes them spectroscopic is their detectability.

 

[Peter Schutze]

from this in wikipedia:-
Visual binary stars often have large true separations, with periods measured in decades to centuries; consequently, they usually have orbital speeds too small to be measured spectroscopically. Conversely, spectroscopic binary stars move fast in their orbits because they are close together, usually too close to be detected as visual binaries. Binaries that are both visual and spectroscopic thus must be relatively close to Earth

makes me think that non-spectroscopic binaries are the ones missing the multiplier to their die roll. then again note the last sentence

then again there is so much out-of-date compared to current astro-sciences that I wouldnt worry

 

[foxx]

then again there is so much out-of-date compared to current astro-sciences that I wouldnt worry

I'm not worried about the accuracy of the game rules to modern science. What I am trying to do is automate stellar and world design in an Excel spreadsheet, so that I can create system info for the game fairly quickly.

I'm thinking that for spectroscopic binary systems, I'll use an orbit of "1D10 times _0.1_ au".

 

[Peter Schutze]

0.1-1 AU sounds alright unless you want to complicate it by size .... eg x0.2 if either is bigger than a v series star (ie giants get bigger seperations)