CaltechAUTHORS
Published November 10, 2007 | Version Published
Journal Article Open

The Orbits of the Quadruple Star System 88 Tauri A from PHASES Differential Astrometry and Radial Velocity

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • 2. ROR icon University of California, Berkeley
  • 3. ROR icon Tennessee State University
  • 4. ROR icon Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center
  • 5. ROR icon Jet Propulsion Lab
  • 6. ROR icon California Institute of Technology

Abstract

We have used high-precision differential astrometry from the Palomar High-precision Astrometric Search for Exoplanet Systems (PHASES) project and radial velocity measurements covering a time span of 20 years to determine the orbital parameters of the 88 Tau A system. 88 Tau is a complex hierarchical multiple system comprising a total of six stars; we have studied the brightest four, consisting of two short-period pairs orbiting each other with an ~18 yr period. We present the first orbital solution for one of the short-period pairs, and determine the masses of the components and distance to the system to the level of a few percent. In addition, our astrometric measurements allow us to make the first determination of the mutual inclinations of the orbits. We find that the subsystems are not coplanar.

Additional Information

© 2007 The American Astronomical Society. Received 2007 May 22; accepted 2007 June 13. We wish to acknowledge the extraordinary observational efforts of K. Rykoski. Observations with PTI are made possible thanks to the efforts of the PTI Collaboration, which we acknowledge. This research has made use of services from the Michelson Science Center, California Institute of Technology, http://msc.caltech.edu. Part of the work described in this paper was performed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. This research has made use of the SIMBAD database, operated at CDS, Strasbourg, France, and of data products from the Two Micron All Sky Survey, which is a joint project of the University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, California Institute of Technology, funded by NASA and the NSF. We thank T. Willmitch for measuring some of the early KPNO spectra. The work of F. C. F. and M. W. has been supported in part by NASA grant NCC5-511 and NSF grant HRD-9706268. PHASES is funded in part by the California Institute of Technology Astronomy Department, and by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under grant NNG05GJ58G issued through the Terrestrial Planet Finder Foundation Science Program. This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation through grants AST 03-00096, AST 05-07590, and AST 00-5366. M.W. M. is grateful for the support of a Townes fellowship. M. K. is supported by NASA through grant NNG04GM62G and the Polish Ministry of Education and Science through grant 1P03D 021 29.

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Additional details

Identifiers

Eprint ID
17722
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20100310-134218966

Funding

NASA
NCC5-511
NSF
HRD-9706268
Caltech Astronomy Department
NASA
NNG05GJ58G
NSF
AST 03-00096
NSF
AST 05-07590
NSF
AST 00-5366
UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory Townes Postdoctoral Fellowship
NASA
NNG04GM62G
Ministry of Education and Science (Poland)
1P03D 021 29

Dates

Created
2010-03-12
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2021-11-08
Created from EPrint's last_modified field

Caltech Custom Metadata

Caltech groups
Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences (GPS)