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  • 21 Aug, 2019

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V577 Monocerotis

Ross 614 (V577 Monocerotis) is a red dwarf UV Ceti flare star and it is the primary member of a nearby binary star system in the constellation of Monoceros. This star has a magnitude of about 11, making it invisible to the unaided eye even though it is one of the stars nearest to the Sun. This system is among the closest to the Sun at an estimated distance of about 13.3 light years. Because this star is so close to the Earth it is often the subject of study, hence the large number of designations by which it is known.

Binary star system

An ultraviolet band light curve for V577 Monocerotis showing several flares, adapted from Pettersen and Sundland (1991)

This binary star system consists of two closely spaced low-mass red dwarfs. The secondary star is a dim magnitude 14 lost in the glare of the nearby primary star.

A study by George Gatewood in 2003 using older sources along with data from the Hipparcos satellite yielded an orbital period of about 16.6 years and a semi-major axis separation of about 1.1 arc seconds (2.4–5.3 AU). The most recent determination of the system orbital elements comes from a 2022 study combining data from radial velocity, astrometry, and imaging, which finds a similar orbital period, a semi-major axis of 4.2 AU, and a very low mass for the companion of 94.8 MJ.

History

The primary star was discovered in 1927 by F. E. Ross using the 40 in (100 cm) refractor telescope at the Yerkes Observatory. He noticed the high proper motion of this dim 11th magnitude star in his second-epoch plates that were part of an astronomical survey started by E. E. Barnard, his predecessor at the observatory. Ross then included this new star in his eponymous catalog along with many others he discovered.

The first detection of a binary system was in 1936 by Dirk Reuyl using the 26-in refractor telescope of the McCormick Observatory at the University of Virginia using astrometric analysis of photographic plates. In 1951 Sarah L. Lippincott made the first reasonably accurate predictions of the position of the secondary star using the 24 in (61 cm) refractor telescope of the Sproul Observatory. These calculations were used by Walter Baade to find and optically resolve this binary system for the first time using the then new 5 m (200 in) Hale Telescope at the Palomar Observatory in California.

See also

References

  1. ^ "V* V577 Mon". SIMBAD. Centre de données astronomiques de Strasbourg. Retrieved 2009-06-02.
  2. ^ "LHS 1850". SIMBAD. Centre de données astronomiques de Strasbourg. Retrieved 2009-06-02.
  3. ^ George Gatewood; et al. (2003). "An Astrometric Study of the Low-Mass Binary Star Ross 614" (PDF). The Astronomical Journal. 125 (3): 1530–1536. Bibcode:2003AJ....125.1530G. doi:10.1086/346143. S2CID 119597659. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-12-19. Retrieved 2009-06-03.
  4. ^ "GCVS Query=V577 Mon". General Catalog of Variable Stars. Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg. Retrieved 2009-06-02.
  5. ^ Feng, Fabo; Butler, R. Paul; et al. (August 2022). "3D Selection of 167 Substellar Companions to Nearby Stars". The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. 262 (21): 21. arXiv:2208.12720. Bibcode:2022ApJS..262...21F. doi:10.3847/1538-4365/ac7e57. S2CID 251864022.
  6. ^ Eggl, S.; Pilat-Lohinger, E.; Funk, B.; Georgakarakos, N.; Haghighipour, N. (2013-02-01). "Circumstellar habitable zones of binary-star systems in the solar neighbourhood". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 428 (4): 3104–3113. arXiv:1210.5411. Bibcode:2013MNRAS.428.3104E. doi:10.1093/mnras/sts257. ISSN 0035-8711.
  7. ^ Pettersen, B. R.; Sundland, S. R. (February 1991). "The flare activity of V 577 Monocerotis". Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series. 87: 303–308. Bibcode:1991A&AS...87..303P. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  8. ^ Reuyl, Dirk (July 1936). "Variable proper motion of Ross 614". The Astronomical Journal. 45 (1050): 133–135. Bibcode:1936AJ.....45..133R. doi:10.1086/105356.
  9. ^ Lippincott, S. L. (February 1951). "Parallax and orbit analysis of Ross 614". Astronomical Journal. 55: 236–242. Bibcode:1951AJ.....55..236L. doi:10.1086/106471.