contact binary

noun

: a binary star system in which the two stars are close enough together for material to pass between them

Examples of contact binary in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Based on models of contact binary star behavior, the two should meet in an incandescent bear hug in 2022, give or take a year or so. — Nathaniel Scharping, Discover Magazine, 7 Jan. 2017 About 4 percent of the simulations result in contact binaries. — Joseph Howlett, Scientific American, 19 Feb. 2026 Ultima Thule — considered a contact binary — is the most distant world ever explored. — Marcia Dunn, The Seattle Times, 12 Feb. 2019 The asteroid could, for example, be a contact binary, according to Michel, in which two separate bodies came together at low velocities. — Andrew Jones, Space.com, 28 June 2026 Sweeping past the contact binary Arrokoth at a distance of just 3,500 kilometers (2,198 miles) in 2019, the images that New Horizons returned appeared to an untrained eye to resemble an unspectacular lumpy potato. — Diane Hope, Ars Technica, 12 Dec. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1941, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of contact binary was in 1941

Rhymes for contact binary

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Browse Nearby Words

contact bed
contact binary
contact block
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Cite this Entry

“Contact binary.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/contact%20binary. Accessed 7 Jul. 2026.

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