Observation data Epoch J2000 Equinox J2000 | |
---|---|
Constellation | Caelum |
Right ascension | 04h 21m 05.563s [2] |
Declination | −48° 39′ 07.06″ [2] |
Apparent magnitude (V) | 14.40 [3] |
Characteristics | |
Evolutionary stage | White dwarf + red dwarf |
Spectral type | DA7.8 + M4 [4] |
U−B color index | −0.42 [3] |
B−V color index | 0.52 [3] |
Variable type | Algol [5] |
Astrometry | |
Proper motion (μ) | RA: 30.030 [2] mas/yr Dec.: −533.886 [2] mas/yr |
Parallax (π) | 47.2000 ± 0.0200 mas [2] |
Distance | 69.10 ± 0.03 ly (21.186 ± 0.009 pc) |
Orbit [4] | |
Period (P) | 7.289 h |
Semi-major axis (a) | 1.46 R☉ |
Eccentricity (e) | 0 |
Inclination (i) | 87.9° |
Semi-amplitude (K1) (primary) | 48 km/s |
Semi-amplitude (K2) (secondary) | 196 km/s |
Details [1] | |
White dwarf | |
Mass | 0.448±0.002 [4] M☉ |
Radius | 0.01568±0.00009 [4] R☉ |
Luminosity (bolometric) | 0.0007 ± 0.00015 [note 1] L☉ |
Surface gravity (log g) | (7.67–7.72) ± 0.06 cgs |
Temperature | 7540 ± 175 K |
Red dwarf | |
Mass | (0.182–0.183) ± 0.012 M☉ |
Radius | (0.203–0.215) ± 0.015 R☉ |
Luminosity (bolometric) | 0.0038 ± 0.0013 [note 1] L☉ |
Surface gravity (log g) | (5.04–5.09) ± 0.04 cgs |
Temperature | 3100 ± 113 K |
Other designations | |
Database references | |
SIMBAD | data |
Exoplanet Archive | data |
ARICNS | data |
RR Caeli is an eclipsing binary star in the constellation Caelum. It is 69 light years from Earth.
RR Caeli was first noted to be a high-proper motion star in 1955 by Jacob Luyten, and given the designation LFT 349.
This star system consists of a red dwarf of spectral type M6 and a white dwarf that orbit each other every seven hours; the former is 18% as massive as the Sun, while the latter has 44% of the Sun's mass. [7] The red dwarf is tidally locked with the white dwarf, meaning it displays the same side to the heavier star. [8] The system is also a post-common-envelope binary, and the red dwarf star is transferring material onto the white dwarf. In approximately 9–20 billion years, RR Caeli will likely become a cataclysmic variable star due to the period's gradual shortening, leading to increasing rates of transfer of hydrogen to the surface of the white dwarf. [1] The white dwarf is likely to have a plain helium core, as its density is too low for the carbon-oxygen core. [4]
Discovered to be an eclipsing binary in 1979, it has a baseline magnitude of 14.36, dimming markedly every 7.2 hours for an interval of around 10 minutes, due to the total eclipse of the hotter star by the cooler one. Its variability in brightness led to its being given the variable star designation RR Caeli in 1984. There are very shallow secondary eclipses where the white dwarf transits across the red dwarf. [7]
In 2012, analysis of slight variations in the observed light curve of the system showed that there was likely a giant planet about four times as massive as Jupiter orbiting the pair of stars with a period of 11.9 years, and that there was also evidence for a second possible substellar body further out. [9] More observations of the light curve are likely to help confirm the presence of one or both planets. [9] A 2022 study found that at least the 2012 model fails to predict recent changes in eclipse timing, suggesting that a different explanation for the eclipse timing variations may be needed. [10] A two-planet model was presented in 2023. [11]
Companion (in order from star) | Mass | Semimajor axis (AU) | Orbital period (years) | Eccentricity | Inclination | Radius |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
b(controversial) | ≥3.0±0.3 MJ | 5.2±0.1 | 15.0±0.6 | 0 | >17.6° | — |
c(controversial) | ≥2.7±0.7 MJ | 9.7±0.9 | 39±5 | 0 | — | — |
Caelum is a faint constellation in the southern sky, introduced in the 1750s by Nicolas Louis de Lacaille and counted among the 88 modern constellations. Its name means "chisel" in Latin, and it was formerly known as Caelum Sculptorium ; it is a rare word, unrelated to the far more common Latin caelum, meaning "sky", "heaven", or "atmosphere". It is the eighth-smallest constellation, and subtends a solid angle of around 0.038 steradians, just less than that of Corona Australis.
Epsilon Indi, Latinized from ε Indi, is a star system located at a distance of approximately 12 light-years from Earth in the southern constellation of Indus. The star has an orange hue and is faintly visible to the naked eye with an apparent visual magnitude of 4.83. It consists of a K-type main-sequence star, ε Indi A, and two brown dwarfs, ε Indi Ba and ε Indi Bb, in a wide orbit around it. The brown dwarfs were discovered in 2003. ε Indi Ba is an early T dwarf (T1) and ε Indi Bb a late T dwarf (T6) separated by 0.6 arcseconds, with a projected distance of 1460 AU from their primary star.
40 Eridani is a triple star system in the constellation of Eridanus, abbreviated 40 Eri. It has the Bayer designation Omicron2 Eridani, which is Latinized from ο2 Eridani and abbreviated Omicron2 Eri or ο2 Eri. Based on parallax measurements taken by the Gaia mission, it is about 16.3 light-years from the Sun.
Groombridge 34 is a binary star system in the northern constellation of Andromeda. It was listed as entry number 34 in A Catalogue of Circumpolar Stars, published posthumously in 1838 by British astronomer Stephen Groombridge. Based upon parallax measurements taken by the Gaia spacecraft, the system is located about 11.6 light-years from the Sun. This positions the pair among the nearest stars to the Solar System.
TW Hydrae is a T Tauri star approximately 196 light-years away in the constellation of Hydra. TW Hydrae is about 80% of the mass of the Sun, but is only about 5-10 million years old. The star appears to be accreting from a face-on protoplanetary disk of dust and gas, which has been resolved in images from the ALMA observatory. TW Hydrae is accompanied by about twenty other low-mass stars with similar ages and spatial motions, comprising the "TW Hydrae association" or TWA, one of the closest regions of recent "fossil" star-formation to the Sun.
Gliese 667 is a triple-star system in the constellation Scorpius lying at a distance of about 7.2 parsecs from Earth. All three of the stars have masses smaller than the Sun. There is a 12th-magnitude star close to the other three, but it is not gravitationally bound to the system. To the naked eye, the system appears to be a single faint star of magnitude 5.89.
HR 5553 is a binary star system located thirty-eight light-years away from the Sun, in the northern constellation Boötes. It has the variable star designation DE Boötis, and is classified as an RS Canum Venaticorum variable that ranges in apparent visual magnitude from 5.97 down to 6.04, which is bright enough to be dimly visible to the naked eye. The system is drifting closer to the Sun with a radial velocity of −30 km/s, and is expected to come as close as 26.9 light-years in 210,000 years.
HW Virginis, abbreviated HW Vir, is an eclipsing binary system, approximately 563 light-years away based on the parallax measured by the Gaia spacecraft, in the constellation of Virgo. The system comprises an eclipsing B-type subdwarf star and red dwarf star. The two stars orbit each other every 0.116795 days.
A circumbinary planet is a planet that orbits two stars instead of one. The two stars orbit each other in a binary system, while the planet typically orbits farther from the center of the system than either of the two stars. In contrast, circumstellar planets in a binary system have stable orbits around one of the two stars, closer in than the orbital distance of the other star. Studies in 2013 showed that there is a strong hint that a circumbinary planet and its stars originate from a single disk.
NN Serpentis is an eclipsing post-common envelope binary system approximately 1670 light-years away. The system comprises an eclipsing white dwarf and red dwarf. The two stars orbit each other every 0.13 days.
QS Virginis is an eclipsing binary system approximately 163 light-years away from the Sun, forming a cataclysmic variable. The system comprises an eclipsing white dwarf and red dwarf that orbit each other every 3.37 hours.
Kepler-35 is a binary star system in the constellation of Cygnus. These stars, called Kepler-35A and Kepler-35B have masses of 89% and 81% solar masses respectively, and both are assumed to be of spectral class G. They are separated by 0.176 AU, and complete an eccentric orbit around a common center of mass every 20.73 days.
NSVS 14256825, also known as V1828 Aquilae, is an eclipsing binary system in the constellation of Aquila. The system comprises a subdwarf OB star and red dwarf star. The two stars orbit each other every 2.648976 hours. Based on the stellar parallax of the system, observed by Gaia, the system is located approximately 2,700 light-years away.
KH 15D, described as a winking star because of its unusual dips in brightness, is a binary T Tauri star system embedded in a circumbinary disk. It is a member of the young open cluster NGC 2264, located about 2,500 light-years (770 pc) from the Sun in the constellation of Monoceros.
TOI-1338 is a binary star system located in the constellation Pictor, about 1,320 light-years from Earth. It is orbited by two known circumbinary planets, TOI-1338 b, discovered by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and BEBOP-1c, discovered by the Binaries Escorted By Orbiting Planets project.
A post-common envelope binary (PCEB) or pre-cataclysmic variable is a binary system consisting of a white dwarf or hot subdwarf and a main-sequence star or a brown dwarf. The star or brown dwarf shared a common envelope with the white dwarf progenitor in the red giant phase. In this scenario the star or brown dwarf loses angular momentum as it orbits within the envelope, eventually leaving a main-sequence star and white dwarf in a short-period orbit. A PCEB will continue to lose angular momentum via magnetic braking and gravitational waves and will eventually begin mass-transfer, resulting in a cataclysmic variable. While there are thousands of PCEBs known, there are only a few eclipsing PCEBs, also called ePCEBs. Even more rare are PCEBs with a brown dwarf as the secondary. A brown dwarf with a mass lower than 20 MJ might evaporate during the common envelope phase and therefore the secondary is supposed to have a mass higher than 20 MJ.
NY Virginis is a binary star about 1,940 light-years away. The primary belongs to the rare class of subdwarf B stars, being former red giants with their hydrogen envelope completely stripped by a stellar companion. The companion is a red dwarf star. The binary nature of NY Virginis was first identified in 1998, and the extremely short orbital period of 0.101016 d, together with brightness variability on the timescale of 200 seconds was noticed, resulting in the identification of the primary star as a B-type subdwarf in 2003. Under a proposed classification scheme for hot subdwarfs it would be class sdB1VII:He1. This non-standard system indicates that it is a "normal" luminosity for a hot subdwarf and that the spectrum is dominated by hydrogen rather than helium.
HD 283750, also known as V833 Tauri, is a K-type main-sequence star 57 light-years away from the Sun. The star is much younger than the Sun's at 1 billion years. HD 283750 is similar to the Sun in its concentration of heavy elements.