Ross 614 (V577 Monocerotis) is a

red dwarf ''Red Dwarf'' is a British science fiction comedy franchise created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, which primarily consists of a television sitcom that aired on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999, and on Dave since 2009, gaining a cult following. T ...

UV Ceti flare star and it is the primary member of a nearby

binary star A binary star is a system of two stars that are gravitationally bound to and in orbit around each other. Binary stars in the night sky that are seen as a single object to the naked eye are often resolved using a telescope as separate stars, in wh ...

system in the constellation of Monoceros. This star has a magnitude of about 11, making it invisible to the unaided eye even though it is one of the stars nearest to the Sun. This system is among the closest to the Sun at an estimated distance of about 13.3

light year A light-year, alternatively spelled light year, is a large unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equivalent to about 9.46 trillion kilometers (), or 5.88 trillion miles ().One trillion here is taken to be 1012 ...

s. Because this star is so close to the Earth it is often the subject of study, hence the large number of designations by which it is known.

Binary star system

This binary star system consists of two closely spaced low-mass

s. The secondary star is a dim magnitude 14 lost in the glare of the nearby primary star. A study by George Gatewood in 2003 using older sources along with data from the

Hipparcos ''Hipparcos'' was a scientific satellite of the European Space Agency (ESA), launched in 1989 and operated until 1993. It was the first space experiment devoted to precision astrometry, the accurate measurement of the positions of celestial obj ...

satellite yielded an orbital period of about 16.6 years and a semi-major axis separation of about 1.1 arc seconds (2.4–5.3 AU). The most recent determination of the system orbital elements comes from a 2022 study combining data from

radial velocity The radial velocity or line-of-sight velocity, also known as radial speed or range rate, of a target with respect to an observer is the temporal rate of change, rate of change of the distance or Slant range, range between the two points. It is e ...

astrometry Astrometry is a branch of astronomy that involves precise measurements of the positions and movements of stars and other celestial bodies. It provides the kinematics and physical origin of the Solar System and this galaxy, the Milky Way. His ...

, and imaging, which finds a similar orbital period, a

semi-major axis In geometry, the major axis of an ellipse is its longest diameter: a line segment that runs through the center and both foci, with ends at the two most widely separated points of the perimeter. The semi-major axis (major semiaxis) is the long ...

of 4.2 AU, and a very low mass for the companion of .

History

The primary star was discovered in 1927 by F. E. Ross using the refractor telescope at the Yerkes Observatory. He noticed the high

proper motion Proper motion is the astrometric measure of the observed changes in the apparent places of stars or other celestial objects in the sky, as seen from the center of mass of the Solar System, compared to the abstract background of the more dista ...

of this dim 11th magnitude star in his second-epoch plates that were part of an astronomical survey started by

E. E. Barnard Edward Emerson Barnard (December 16, 1857 – February 6, 1923) was an American astronomer. He was commonly known as E. E. Barnard, and was recognized as a gifted observational astronomer. He is best known for his discovery of the high proper mo ...

, his predecessor at the observatory. Ross then included this new star in his eponymous catalog along with many others he discovered. The first detection of a binary system was in 1936 by Dirk Reuyl using the 26-in refractor telescope of the McCormick Observatory at the University of Virginia using astrometric analysis of photographic plates. In 1951

Sarah L. Lippincott Sarah Lee Lippincott (October 26, 1920 – February 28, 2019), also known as Sarah Lee Lippincott Zimmerman, was an American astronomer. She was professor emerita of astronomy at Swarthmore College and director emerita of the college's Sproul Obs ...

made the first reasonably accurate predictions of the position of the secondary star using the refractor telescope of the

Sproul Observatory Sproul Observatory was an astronomical observatory owned and operated by Swarthmore College. It was located in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, United States, and named after William Cameron Sproul, the 27th Governor of Pennsylvania, who graduate ...

. These calculations were used by Walter Baade to find and optically resolve this binary system for the first time using the then new Hale Telescope at the

Palomar Observatory Palomar Observatory is an astronomical research observatory in San Diego County, California, United States, in the Palomar Mountain Range. It is owned and operated by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Research time at the observat ...

in California.

References

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ross 614 Local Bubble M-type main-sequence stars Monoceros (constellation) Binary stars 614 030920 0234 Monocerotis, V577

Binary star system

History

See also

References

Notes