Stars aligned: An atlas of binary stars

The latest star data from the Gaia space observatory has for the first time allowed astronomers to generate a massive 3D atlas of widely separated binary stars within about 3,000 light years of Earth - 1.3 million of them.
The one-of-a-kind atlas, created by Kareem El-Badry, an astrophysics Ph.D. student from the University of California, Berkeley, should be a boon for those who study binary stars - which make up at least half of all sunlike stars - and white dwarfs, exoplanets and stellar evolution, in general. Before Gaia, the last compilation of nearby binary stars, assembled using data from the now-defunct Hipparcos satellite, included about 200 likely pairs.
For full story, visit: news.berkeley.edu
news.berkeley....
Video animation: Jackie Faherity, AMNH, and data by Kareem El-Badry
Edited by Roxanne Makasdjian
music: Glacier by Patrick Patrikios
news.berkeley.edu/
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[@simonshack1]

In my TYCHOS model, the Sun and Mars are binary companions - much like Sirius A and Sirius B which, as it happens, are proportionally identical to Sun and Mars). In fact, we now know that the vast majority (if not all) of the stars are 'locked' in binary systems.

[@colineckstrand271]

One problem mates, binary stars rotate around each other, they are not just gavitationally locked together.

[@sc0repio662]

Yeah... I noticed the error immediately & I'm just a hobbyist Astronomer.

[@scisuperheroes]

All those pairs floating, not rotating, odd. Will have to read the paper

[@tma-1701]

Timescales tho. In certain gravitational conditions, may rotation be much slower than revolution?

[@colineckstrand271]

@@tma-1701 Yes but they depicted most binary stars just gliding along side by side, most binary stars obit each other and the graphic did not show that.

[@sc0repio662]

@@tma-1701 I didn't see a single pair in rotation ; ALL the pairs, even the ones in close proximity to each other, are travelling in perfect parallel trajectories.

[@Achill101]

Why did the video end up in a kind of petri dish with particles wobbling in Brownian motion?

[@CrandMackerel]

I have a feeling that this video, while full of neato production value, isn't scientifically accurate.