Binary system

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Binary system" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (February 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

A binary system is a system of two astronomical bodies of the same kind that are comparable in size. Definitions vary, but typically require the center of mass to be located outside of either object. (See animated examples.)

The most common kinds of binary system are binary stars and binary asteroids, but brown dwarfs, planets, neutron stars, black holes and galaxies can also form binaries.

A multiple system is similar but consists of three or more objects, for example trinary stars and trinary asteroids.