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Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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Welcome to the explain xkcd wiki!
We have an explanation for all 3211 xkcd comics, and only 62 (2%) are incomplete. Help us finish them!

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Binary Star
The discovery of a fully typographical star system comes with a big asterisk.
Title text: The discovery of a fully typographical star system comes with a big asterisk.

Explanation

While a "main sequence star" is a real celestial object, a five-pointed star is how stars are often drawn. The comic uses a drawn star shape to be a part of a celestial star system.

The title text similarly uses the * symbol (an asterisk - meaning little star), which is sometimes called a star, to be another real celestial star. A "big asterisk" is used as a metaphor for a rather large caveat, symbolizing a long footnote.

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