Using the TRES spectrograph (Tillinghast Reflector Echelle Spectrograph) and the transit exoplanet research satellite
Located at a distance of about 127 light yearsFrom Earth, G68-34 is the closest M-class dwarf that forms a distant (9 arcseconds) binary system with a white dwarf known as LP 463-28. Previous observations of this white dwarf-M dwarf pair showed that G 68-34 rotates with a period of 0.655 days and that the system is older than five billion years. Scientists came to this conclusion by analyzing the cooling age of the white dwarf.
Scientists have also found that the radii of dwarfsare 0.345 and 0.342 solar, and the masses are 0.328 and 0.32 of our star, respectively. Both components are completely convective, the study authors emphasize.
“We observed G 68-34 using the TRES spectrograph"at the 1.5-meter telescope at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory from September 2022 to January 2023, exposure times varied from 2,160 to 3,600 seconds, depending on sky conditions," the researchers wrote. The observations confirmed for the first time that a pair of dwarfs form an eclipsing star system with two lines.
Eclipsing stars are star systems in which periodic changes in brightness are observed due to the eclipses of one star by another.
Such double line systems have a decisiveimplications for astronomers testing stellar models. This is because the masses and radii of both objects can be directly measured from the light curves and radial velocity of the system.
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Image Credit & Copyright: Tod Strohmeyer (GSFC), CXC, NASA Artwork: Dana Berry (CXC)