Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
May 2000
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2000aas...19513203p&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, 195th AAS Meeting, #132.03; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 32, p.879
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
1
Scientific paper
The brightest binary star in the Pleiades cluster, Atlas, has been resolved by the Palomar Testbed Interferometer and the Mark III Optical Interferometer. However, despite the brightness of the star, there are no reliable spectroscopic results available. Now interferometric observations have determined all seven orbital parameters independently and accurately. In addition, the magnitude differences between two components are measured as 1.68 +/- 0.07 mag at V band, and 1.92 +/- 0.06 mag at K band, which yield the color indices (V - K ) of -0.14 +/- 0.07 mag for the primary and -0.36 +/- 0.08 mag for the companion. These interferometric results are consistent with the angular separation and magnitude difference from lunar occultation measurements. It is interesting to compare the orbit with that from the Hipparcos mission for this close binary system. The period determined from interferometry has significantly smaller uncertainty and is consistent with the period from Hipparcos. The photocentric orbit from Hipparcos has a semi-major axis of 4.23 +/- 0.97 mas. The astrometric orbit from interferometry has a semi-major axis of 12.9 +/- 0.1 mas and eccentricity of 0.246 +/- 0.006. Since the primary is a B8 giant, and we refer from their color indices that the companion is a B8 main-sequence star, the total mass of the system is definitely greater than 5.4 solar masses. This leads to a distance for Atlas which is significantly larger than the value of 116 +/- 3 pc determined by Hipparcos for the Pleiades cluster. This work was supported by NASA under its Origins Program.
Kulkarni Sandeep S.
Pan X. P.
Shao Maxine
No associations
LandOfFree
The Visual Orbit of Atlas and the Distance to the Pleiades does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with The Visual Orbit of Atlas and the Distance to the Pleiades, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and The Visual Orbit of Atlas and the Distance to the Pleiades will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1122285