Y. Gómez Maqueo Chew, K. G. Stassun (Vanderbilt University), L. P. Vaz (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil), R. Mathieu (University of Wisconsin), J. Valenti (STScI)
We present the light curves for two low-mass eclipsing binary systems in the Orion star-forming region, V1174 Ori (Stassun et al. 2004) and a newly discovered system presented here for the first time. We model these light curves using a Wilson-Devinney based code to derive fundamental system properties, including effective temperatures and radii. Our analysis includes JHK light curves obtained with the 1.3m SMARTS telescope at CTIO.
Both V1174 Ori and the newly discovered system are of particular interest because they are examples of very young, low-mass stars which provide useful data for testing the predictions of current theoretical models of pre-main-sequence stellar evolution. Both systems are members of the Orion Nebula Cluster, and therefore have likely ages of only a few million years. V1174 Ori comprises a primary star of 1 M\odot and a secondary star of 0.7 M\odot. The components of the newly discovered system are both brown dwarfs, with masses of 0.05 and 0.03 M\odot, respectively, making this system the first example of an eclipsing brown dwarf pair.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: yilen.gomez@vanderbilt.edu
Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 37 #2
© 2005. The American Astronomical Soceity.