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The Detection of Triple Systems Through the Precession of the Nodes Effect

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

T. Mazeh  and
M. Mayor
T. Mazeh
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley
M. Mayor
Affiliation:
Observatoire de Geneve

Extract

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This paper is a report on a new technique for detecting close triple stars and on a current observational project with some preliminary results, using this method. The goal of the project is to discover new triple systems where the ratio between the long and the short orbital period is small. A system will be called a close triple system if its short orbital period is of several days.

In most of the known triple stars (Fekel 1981), the period ratio is very large. This can be attributed to the fact that the wide orbit has been detected visually in most cases. In the few exceptions (e.g. λ Tau, Ebbighausen and Struve 1956), the wide orbit was discovered by detecting additional periodicity in the derived velocity of the close pair mass center γ As this small modulation is imposed on the large radial velocity variation associated with the orbit of the close pair, many triple systems could have escaped this kind of detection. Consequently, the present typical or averaged period ratio might be highly overestimated.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 62: Current Techniques in Double and Multiple Star Research , May 1983 , pp. 120 - 124
Copyright
Copyright © Lowell Observatory 1983

References

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