CIRCUMBINARY PLANETS ORBITING THE RAPIDLY PULSATING SUBDWARF B-TYPE BINARY NY Vir
- National Astronomical Observatories/Yunnan Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), P.O. Box 110, 650011 Kunming (China)
- Facultad de Ciencias Astronomicas y Geofisicas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, 1900 La Plata, Buenos Aires (Argentina)
We report here the tentative discovery of a Jovian planet in orbit around the rapidly pulsating subdwarf B-type (sdB-type) eclipsing binary NY Vir. By using newly determined eclipse times together with those collected from the literature, we detect that the observed-calculated (O - C) curve of NY Vir shows a small-amplitude cyclic variation with a period of 7.9 yr and a semiamplitude of 6.1 s, while it undergoes a downward parabolic change (revealing a period decrease at a rate of P-dot = -9.2 x 10{sup -12}). The periodic variation was analyzed for the light-travel-time effect via the presence of a third body. The mass of the tertiary companion was determined to be M{sub 3}sin i' = 2.3({+-} 0.3)M{sub Jupiter} when a total mass of 0.60 M{sub Sun} for NY Vir is adopted. This suggests that it is most probably a giant circumbinary planet orbiting NY Vir at a distance of about 3.3 astronomical units (AU). Since the rate of period decrease cannot be explained by true angular momentum loss caused by gravitational radiation or/and magnetic braking, the observed downward parabolic change in the O - C diagram may be only a part of a long-period (longer than 15 years) cyclic variation, which may reveal the presence of another Jovian planet ({approx}2.5 M{sub Jupiter}) in the system.
- OSTI ID:
- 22048073
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 745, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 2041-8205
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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