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If I have enough data of a variable star to make a light curve for it's whole period, and If I fit a function to that light curve, can that fitted function tell me anything about the properties of the star?

If so, is it different for different types of stars?

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In short, it can tell you a lot of stuff. You could identify (probably) the following:

  • Type of star E.g. a light curve of a eclipsing binary system

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Light curve of supernova:

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Not only that you can also identify the radius (thereafter volume), size of the planet, and the orbital period by measuring the elapsed time between transits.

You can identify quite a bit of information. Given you find orbital period, radius etc., you can use this information to find other information too. So it keeps branching!

Note:

Kepler's Third Law: the squares of the orbital periods of the planets are directly proportional to the cubes of the semi-major axes of their orbits. Kepler's Third Law implies that the period for a planet to orbit the Sun increases rapidly with the radius of its orbit.

References:

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