HST Observations of Astrophysically Important Visual Binaries

Details HST Observations of Astrophysically Important Visual Binaries HST Observations of Astrophysically Important Visual Binaries

Jul 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008hst..prop11786b&link_type=abstract

HST Proposal ID #11786. Cycle 17

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This is a continuation of a project begun in Cycle 7 and continued up through Cycle 14. The program consists of annual FGS or WFPC2 observations of three visual binary stars that will yield fundamental astrophysical results, once their orbits and masses are determined. Our targets are the following: {1} Procyon {P = 40.9 yr}, for which our first WFPC2 images yielded an extremely accurate angular separation of the bright F star and its much fainter white-dwarf companion. Combined with ground-based astrometry of the bright star, our observation significantly revised downward the derived masses, and brought Procyon A into much better agreement with theoretical evolutionary masses for the first time. With the continued monitoring proposed here, we will obtain masses to an accuracy of better than 1%, providing a testbed for theories of both Sun-like stars and white dwarfs. {2} G 107-70, a close double white dwarf {P = 18.5 yr} that promises to add two accurate masses to the tiny handful of white-dwarf masses that are directly known from dynamical measurements. {3} Mu Cas {P = 20.8 yr}, a famous nearby metal-deficient G dwarf for which accurate masses will lead to the stars' helium contents, with cosmological implications. For all three stars, we will also be setting increasingly stringent limits on the presence of planetary-mass bodies in the systems.;

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