MESA Binary Background
MESA Binary Background
Stellar astrophysicists are limited in that they cannot perform experiments in the same way typical physicists might. As much as we'd like to poke and prod around the inside of stars, we are unfortunately limited in that we cannot interact with them and are at the mercy of the universe to produce new 'experiments' for us. Even so, we must observe these new 'experiments'; that is by no means a guarantee. To compliment observation, stellar astrophysicists have created stellar evolution codes. There are built off of a century of theoretical mathematical models, experimentally determined nuclear reaction rates, and computational science.
MESA is a one-dimensional stellar evolution code developed by Bill Paxton with the support of an international team of theoretical and computational astrophysicists. MESA can be used to study much (but certainly not all) of stellar astrophysics; MESA binary focuses on using MESA to simulate the evolution of binary stellar systems.
Much of iADD's MESA Binary was inspired by MESA-Web, developed by Professor Carl Fields (University of Arizona) and Professor Francis Timmes (Arizona State University) and hosted by Professor Richard Townsend (UW Madison) on Mad Star. We encourage you to check out MESA-Web along your pursuit to understand stellar astrophysics.
Using MESA Binary
If you wish to generate a MESA Binary model, you can do so at the simulation submission page. Explanations of the relevant quantities, controls and output data can be found here. Once the run is finished, you can download the output files from the following page, just click the mesa_binary_n.zip file to begin the download.
We have also created a custom python module that you can download, instructions for which can be found here. It lets users easily read MESA data into Python. We've also included ready-made functions for creating animations of classic stellar astrophysical quantities like HR diagrams. If you find any bugs or would like a feature added, please contact us.
Frequently Asked Questions
- None (so far!)
Change Log
- 3/2/2026 - Metallicity controls, termination conditions, publishing of iADD MESA Binary python package.
- 2/9/2026 - Simulation resolution and history interval controls.
- 1/20/2026 - Masses and orbital period controls. Mass transfer schemes and transfer efficiency. Magnetic braking and gravitational wave angular momentum loss. Roche lobe overflow, and simulation age stopping parameters.
Learn More
If you wish to learn more about MESA, the best place to start is the MESA homepage. There are instructions on how to install MESA as well as information on most of the essential controls you'll need for basic simulations. The next best place to learn is the MESA Summer School; lessons given by experts in MESA designed to get you more advanced. Once you're comfortable, the MESA Marketplace is a great spot to find papers that use MESA along with the files they used to generate their models. You can also check out the many papers released by the MESA team: Paxton et al. (2011), (2013), (2015), (2018), & (2019).
Contact Us
First, we'd like to thank you for using MESA Binary! If you wish to contact us for any reason, you can do so via email at njhurst2@illinois.edu or at the "Contact us" tab below. Suggestions, bug reports, and questions are always welcome.
Last updated 2/9/2026