Talk:AM Canum Venaticorum

What's the orbital velocity of the lighter donor
Presumably it can be calculated from the two masses and the period ? - Rod57 (talk) 12:46, 23 July 2019 (UTC)
 * You could do that if you wanted. However, binary masses are generally calculated from the measured (projected) orbital velocities (plus some assumptions in this case), not the other way round.  These measurements are difficult for white dwarf systems because the spectral features correspond are dominated by the accretion disk and bright accretion spots, and the donor tends to be completely invisible.  So various assumptions are made.  In the case of AM CVn, faint spectral line features are interpreted as corresponding to orbital motion of the order of 92 km/s.  Its all in the references for this fairly comprehensive article.  Lithopsian (talk) 13:46, 23 July 2019 (UTC)

Separation?
What is the stellar separation here? Fig (talk) 21:10, 19 February 2023 (UTC)
 * Not much! Less than the size of the sun.  I'm not sure there are any good values published out there, but you can hazard a guess just based on the period and the masses.  Lithopsian (talk) 21:25, 19 February 2023 (UTC)