Estimating The Orbital Period Of Ultracool Visual Binaries Using Only Two Observations

Details Estimating The Orbital Period Of Ultracool Visual Binaries Using Only Two Observations Estimating The Orbital Period Of Ultracool Visual Binaries Using Only Two Observations

Dec 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007aas...21110326d&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #211, #103.26; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.924

Physics

Optics

Scientific paper

We are undertaking a laser guide star (LGS) adaptive optics (AO) orbital monitoring program of ultracool binaries to determine the dynamical masses of objects cooler than 2200 K. We have selected binaries with short estimated orbital periods to increase the chance of yielding precise orbit determinations over 3 years of monitoring. Given the tight ( 100 mas) separations of these short-period binaries, this program can currently only be done using Keck LGS AO, which (1) has 3-4 times better resolution than HST in the near-infrared and (2) allows access to more binaries than any other AO system. Because Keck LGS AO is a precious and limited observational resource, it is very important to ensure, as soon as possible, that the orbital monitoring targets in our program truly have short periods. We have developed a novel technique for estimating the orbital period of a visual binary using all the geometrical and temporal information contained in two observations. We assess the accuracy of this technique when applied to observations of well-known orbits, and we present new, more precise and more accurate period estimates for some ultracool binaries. This technique offers a significant improvement over the well-known and widely used method for period estimation based only on a single discovery epoch.

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