In the 170 years since discovery, the stars have completed less than three percent of their orbit. Izar is also notable for its lack of interest to professional astronomers. Most of the stars presented here have dozens, even hundreds, of references to them in the professional literature over the past 15 years. Yet the pair wonderfully presents a chapter in the story of stellar evolution. The A star is about double the solar mass, the K star closer to quadruple.
More massive stars use their fuel and evolve first.
We know how rapidly stars age. The pair was born some 300 million years ago as the white A star we see now and a hotter, bluer, and brighter mid class B star. Ten or 20 million years ago, the brighter star's central hydrogen fuel supply ran out and now it is a bright giant with little time left to it. In a little over a billion years, the same thing will happen to the smaller star, and it will become a lesser orange giant.