Measurements of Neglected Double Stars (Abstract)

Volume 48 number 2 (2020)

Brandon Bonifacio

Stanford Online High School, Academy Hall Floor 2 8853, 415 Broadway, Redwood City, CA 94063; bonifaciobrandon@gmail.com,

Calla Marchetti

Stanford Online High School, Academy Hall Floor 2 8853, 415 Broadway, Redwood City, CA 94063; calla.marchetti@gmail.com

Ryan Caputo

Stanford Online High School, Academy Hall Floor 2 8853, 415 Broadway, Redwood City, CA 94063; ryanjc314@gmail.com

Kalée Tock

Stanford Online High School, Academy Hall Floor 2 8853, 415 Broadway, Redwood City, CA 94063; kaleeg@stanford.edu

Abstract

(Abstract only) Double stars with a dim, high delta-magnitude companion are difficult to resolve and measure, and are therefore often neglected despite their high abundance in the galaxy. We measured fourteen of these dim, high delta-magnitude doubles, some from the WDS and some discovered by Gaia but never studied before. Although all of our systems’ components have similar parallax and proper motion, many have only a few observations other than what is presented here, making them historically neglected. To resolve the systems, we use PixInsight and AstroImageJ to perform image stacking. Using the measurements from Gaia Data Release 2, we present an escape velocity estimate to assess the likelihood of a system being gravitationally bound. A Monte Carlo method is employed to characterize the error associated with this calculation.