FGS Parallaxes of Cataclysmic Variables: Understanding Their Peculiar Secondary Stars

Details FGS Parallaxes of Cataclysmic Variables: Understanding Their Peculiar Secondary Stars FGS Parallaxes of Cataclysmic Variables: Understanding Their Peculiar Secondary Stars

Jul 2001

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001hst..prop.9089h&link_type=abstract

HST Proposal ID #9089

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Hst Proposal Id #9089 Cold Stars

Scientific paper

We have recently completed an HST FGS program that measured high-precision {+/- 0.5 mas} parallaxes for three dwarf novae. The true distances for all three objects turned out to be substantially larger than predicted. The results for SS Cyg alone, will challenge existing models to explain its large accretion luminosity. As part of that program we obtained infrared spectra to examine the spectral types of the secondary stars. The combination of the parallaxes, the spectra, and existing optical/IR photometry has revealed that the secondary stars of cataclysmic variables {CVs} are peculiar, and are clearly affected by close-binary star evolution. We propose a program to measure precise parallaxes for three additional CVs {WZ Sge, RU Peg, and YZ Cnc}, whose orbital periods span a much larger range than explored in our previous program. This will allow us to examine how the accretion luminosity and secondary star change with orbital period. To do this will require 18 total HST orbits over two separate cycles. Twelve orbits in Cycle 10 {four per object}, and six orbits in Cycle 11 {two per object}. Only the FGS on HST is capable of providing timely, high-precision parallaxes on CVs of particular astrophysical interest.

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