Epsilon Aurigae: An Improved Spectroscopic Orbital Solution

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

Scientific paper

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Scientific paper

Epsilon Aurigae has the longest known period of any eclipsing system. The spectroscopic orbit implies a companion that is nearly as massive as the F supergiant primary star (at least 13M&sun; for a 16M&sun; primary), but we see no light from the secondary in our spectra. Furthermore, the eclipse duration of nearly two years implies a size of the occulting object of nearly 5 au. We report on nearly 19 years of radial-velocity monitoring, totaling 495 velocities. Combining these velocities with those already published gives a total of 1193 velocities and coverage of nearly 112 years. We exclude observations taken during the eclipse phases and 200 days before and after first and last contacts due to structure in the absorption lines in these time intervals. This yields a new updated spectroscopic orbital solution with P = 9861 ± 20 days (27 years), e = 0.280 ± 0.017, and K = 14.37 ± 0.26 km/sec. The middle of the next eclipse predicted by our orbital solution is JD2455124 ± 71 (19 October 2009).

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