Astrometric Companions Detected at Visible Wavelengths with the Hubble Space Telescope Fine Guidance Sensors

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Session 85 -- Binaries
Display presentation, Wednesday, 11, 1995, 9:20am - 6:30pm

[85.24] Astrometric Companions Detected at Visible Wavelengths with the Hubble Space Telescope Fine Guidance Sensors

O. G. Franz, L. H. Wasserman (Lowell Obs.), A. J. Bradley (Allied--Signal Aerospace Co.), G. F. Benedict, R. L. Duncombe, P. D. Hemenway, W. H. Jefferys, B. McArthur, E. Nelan, P. J. Shelus, D. Story, A. L. Whipple (UTx.), L. W. Fredrick (UVa), Wm. F. van Altena (Yale)

Astrometric (``unseen'') companions provide a plausible interpretation of periodic, low--amplitude variations (perturbations) in the proper motions of some nearby M--dwarfs (Lippincott 1978, Space Sci. Rev. 22 , 153--189). Using the Fine Guidance Sensors (FGS) in the Transfer Function Scan mode, we have searched for five of these astrometric companions. We report the confirmed detection, at visible wavelengths, of a faint orbiting companion to each of the following M--dwarfs: BD+67.552 = GL310, AC+48.1595$-$89 = GL623, W1062 = GL748, and W922 = GL831.

This work is supported by NASA under grant NAG5--1603 to UTexas.

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