The First Definitive Binary Orbit Determined with the Hubble Space Telescope Fine Guidance Sensors: Wolf 1062 (Gliese 748)

Authors

Otto G. Franz
Todd J. Henry
Lawrence H. Wasserman
G. Fritz Benedict
Philip A. Ianna
J. Davy Kirkpatrick
Donald W. McCarthy Jr.
Arthur J. Bradley
Raynor L. Duncombe
Laurence W. Frederick
Paul D. Hemenway, University of Rhode Island
William H. Jefferys
Barbara E. McArthur
Edmund P. Nelan
Peter J. Shelus
Darrell B. Story
William F. van Altena
Arthur L. Whipple

Document Type

Article

Date of Original Version

1998

Abstract

The M dwarf binary, Wolf 1062 (Gliese 748), has been observed with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Fine Guidance Sensor 3 in the transfer function scan mode to determine the apparent orbit. This is the first orbit defined fully and exclusively with HST, and is the most accurate definitive orbit for any resolved, noneclipsing system. The orbital period is 2.4490 ± 0.0119 yr and the semimajor axis is 01470 ± 00007—both quantities are now known to better than 1%. Using the weighted mean of seven parallax measurements and these HST data, we find the system mass to be 0.543 ± 0.031 M_⊙, where the error of 6% is due almost entirely to the parallax error. An estimated fractional mass from the infrared brightness ratio and infrared mass-luminosity relation yields a mass for the primary of 0.37 M_⊙, and the secondary falls in the regime of very low mass stars, with a mass of only 0.17 M_⊙.

Citation/Publisher Attribution

Franz, O. G., Henry, T. J., Wasserman, L. H., Benedict, G. F., Ianna, P. A., Kirkpatrick, J. D., McCarthy, D. W., Jr.,...Whipple, A. L. (1998). The First Definitive Binary Orbit Determined with the Hubble Space Telescope Fine Guidance Sensors: Wolf 1062 (Gliese 748). The Astronomical Journal, 116(3), 1432-1439. doi: 10.1086/300500.

Available at: https://doi.org/10.1086/300500