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Roche lobe. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
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English
Etymology
Named after Édouard Roche.
Noun
Roche lobe (plural Roche lobes)
- (astronomy) The teardrop-shaped region around a star in a binary system within which orbiting material is gravitationally bound to that star.
2002, Juhan Frank, Andrew King, Derek Raine, Accretion Power in Astrophysics, page 54:A further interesting situation (although not one of much relevance for this book) comes about if both stars for some reason fill their Roche lobes simultaneously.
2012, C. de Loore, C. Doom, Structure and Evolution of Single and Binary Stars, page 386:Generally, mass transfer by Roche lobe overflow is required to power LMXRB's, since low mass stars never exhibit strong stellar winds.
2013, Josef Kallrath, Eugene F. Milone, Eclipsing Binary Stars: Modeling and Analysis, page 85:If only one component accurately fills its Roche lobe the system is semi-detached. If neither fills its Roche lobe, it is detached.