ORBITAL SOLUTIONS FOR TWO YOUNG, LOW-MASS SPECTROSCOPIC BINARIES IN OPHIUCHUS
- Lowell Observatory, 1400 West Mars Hill Road, Flagstaff, AZ 86001 (United States)
- Gemini Observatory, Gemini South, AURA/Chile, P.O. Box 26732, Tucson, AZ 85726 (United States)
We report the orbital parameters for ROXR1 14 and RX J1622.7-2325Nw, two young, low-mass, and double-lined spectroscopic binaries recently discovered in the Ophiuchus star-forming region. Accurate orbital solutions were determined from over a dozen high-resolution spectra taken with the Keck II and Gemini South telescopes. These objects are T Tauri stars with mass ratios close to unity and periods of {approx}5 and {approx}3 days, respectively. In particular, RX J1622.7-2325Nw shows a non-circularized orbit with an eccentricity of 0.30, higher than any other short-period pre-main-sequence (PMS) spectroscopic binary known to date. We speculate that the orbit of RX J1622.7-2325Nw has not yet circularized because of the perturbing action of a {approx}1'' companion, itself a close visual pair. A comparison of known young spectroscopic binaries (SBs) and main-sequence (MS) SBs in the eccentricity-period plane shows an indistinguishable distribution of the two populations, implying that orbital circularization occurs in the first 1 Myr of a star's lifetime. With the results presented in this paper we increase by {approx}4% the small sample of PMS spectroscopic binary stars with known orbital elements.
- OSTI ID:
- 21583272
- Journal Information:
- Astronomical Journal (New York, N.Y. Online), Vol. 141, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-6256/141/1/13; ISSN 1538-3881
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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