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1 byte removed ,  17:31, December 11, 2009
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→‎The Stars: periastron and apastron is more accurate when talking about stars, also a grammar fix.
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==The Stars==
 
==The Stars==
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Although barely visual to the naked eye and appearing as a single star, 61 Cygni is actually a binary star, each which orbit around a common barycenter only every 659 years.  The average distance of the pair from each other is 86 AUs, but the large orbital eccentricity of 0.48 means the stars approach as close as 44 AUs at periapsis and are as far apart as 124 AUs at apoapsis during their mutual orbit<ref name="61Cygni">http://solstation.com/stars/61cygni2.htm</ref>.
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Although barely visual to the naked eye and appearing as a single star, 61 Cygni is actually a binary star, each which orbit around a common barycenter only every 659 years.  The average distance of the pair from each other is 86 AUs, but the large orbital eccentricity of 0.48 means the stars approach as close as 44 AUs at periastron and are as far apart as 124 AUs at apastron during their mutual orbit<ref name="61Cygni">http://solstation.com/stars/61cygni2.htm</ref>.
    
The system also has a large proper motion due to its velocity of 108 km/s relative to our Solar System.  As such, the system is approaching us relatively quickly and will become as close as 9 light years by around 20,000 A.D. before receding.<ref>http://www.astronexus.com/node/41</ref>
 
The system also has a large proper motion due to its velocity of 108 km/s relative to our Solar System.  As such, the system is approaching us relatively quickly and will become as close as 9 light years by around 20,000 A.D. before receding.<ref>http://www.astronexus.com/node/41</ref>
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===61 Cygni B===
 
===61 Cygni B===
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61 Cygni B, the smaller and dimmer star of the pair, is a orange-red main sequence dwarf of spectral type K4.7-7.0 Ve.  The star has 63 percent of our Sun's mass and 67 percent the diameter.<ref name="recons">http://www.chara.gsu.edu/RECONS/TOP100.posted.htm</ref><ref name="harvard">http://adsbit.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1983ApJS...53..643J</ref> Slightly more visually red, the dim star has only 3.5 percent of our Sun's visual luminosity.  Observations have found dust in orbit around the star.  Like it's companion, 61 Cygni B is a variable star, which the variable designation NSV 13546.  
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61 Cygni B, the smaller and dimmer star of the pair, is a orange-red main sequence dwarf of spectral type K4.7-7.0 Ve.  The star has 63 percent of our Sun's mass and 67 percent the diameter.<ref name="recons">http://www.chara.gsu.edu/RECONS/TOP100.posted.htm</ref><ref name="harvard">http://adsbit.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1983ApJS...53..643J</ref> Slightly more visually red, the dim star has only 3.5 percent of our Sun's visual luminosity.  Observations have found dust in orbit around the star.  Like its companion, 61 Cygni B is a variable star, which the variable designation NSV 13546.
    
==Planetary Companions==
 
==Planetary Companions==
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