Assignment:
The orbital period of the binary system containing A0620-00 is 0.32 day, and Doppler shift measurements reveal that the radial velocity of the X-ray source peaks at 457 km/s (about 1 million miles per hour).
a) Assuming that the orbit of the X-ray source is a circle, find the radius of its orbit in kilometers. (This is actually an estimate of the semimajor axis of the orbit.)
b) By using Newton's form of Kepler's third law, prove that the mass of the X-ray source must be at least 3.1 times the mass of the Sun. (Hint: Assume that the mass of the K5V visible star-about 0.5M from the mass-luminosity relationship is negligible compared to that of the invisible companion.)