AT LAST-A V777 HER PULSATOR IN THE KEPLER FIELD
- Instituut voor Sterrenkunde, K.U. Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200D, B-3001 Leuven (Belgium)
- NASA Ames Research Center/Bay Area Environmental Research Institute, MS 244-30, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States)
- Institut fuer Theoretische Physik und Astrophysik, Universitaet Kiel, 24098 Kiel (Germany)
We present the discovery of the first-and so far the only-pulsating white dwarf star located in the field of view of the Kepler spacecraft. During our ongoing effort to search for compact pulsator candidates that can benefit from the near-continuous coverage of Kepler, we recently identified a faint DB star from spectroscopy obtained with the William Herschel Telescope. After establishing its physical parameters to be T{sub eff} = 24,950 K and log g = 7.91 dex, placing it right in the middle of the V777 Her instability strip, we immediately submitted the target for follow-up space observations. The Kepler light curve reveals a pulsation spectrum consisting of five modes that follow a sequence roughly equally spaced in period with a mean spacing of 37 s. The three strongest modes show a triplet structure with a mean splitting of 3.3 {mu}Hz. We conclude that this object is a V777 Her pulsator with a mass of {approx}0.56 M{sub sun}, and very similar to the class prototype.
- OSTI ID:
- 21562502
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 736, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/736/2/L39; ISSN 2041-8205
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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