Using the Spektr-RG (SRG) spacecraft and the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), an international team of astronomers has discovered a new eclipsing cataclysmic variable system, which received designation SRGeJ045359.9+622444 (or SRGeJ0453 for short). The finding is reported in a paper published June 22 on the pre-print server arXiv.
Cataclysmic variables (CVs) are binary star systems consisting of a white dwarf primary that is accreting matter from a normal star companion. They irregularly increase in brightness by a large factor, then drop back down to a quiescent state. These binaries have been found in many environments, such as the center of the Milky Way galaxy, the solar neighborhood, and within open and globular clusters.
AM CVn stars (named after the star AM Canum Venaticorum), are a rare type of CV in which a cataclysmic variables“>white dwarf accretes hydrogen-poor matter from a compact companion star. In general, such systems are helium-rich binaries, not showing traces of hydrogen in their spectra, with orbital periods between five and 65 minutes.
Now, a group of astronomers led by Antonio C. Rodriguez of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) reports the detection of another AM CVn system as part of a joint SRG and ZTF program to identify cataclysmic variables.
“We have presented the first discovery from a joint SRG/eROSITA and ZTF program to search for CVs and related objects in the Milky Way. SRGeJ0453 is an eclipsing, long period AM CVn system which was identified through its high X-ray to optical flux ratio,” the researchers wrote in the paper.
2023-07-04 05:48:05
Original from phys.org rnrn