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From Binaries to Triple Stars
Tucker Freismuth - CTIO/REU 2002 |
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| There are indications that close (spectroscopic) binaries are formed within higher-order multiples. If so, many (or all?) binaries must have tertiary components. We shall check this. For a selection of 20-50 nearby late-type and apparently "single" close binaries, images in B,R filters will be taken at the 0.9m telescope and suitable teriary candidates will be identified on color-magnitude diagrams. These candidates were missed previously because old visual catalogues are incomplete beyond 10-th magnitude. To confirm the candidates, further research will be done with existing databases (proper motions from Tycho or from comparison with DSS images), possibly radial velocities will be measured later as well. |
| ...which brings me to... |
Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory
REU-PIA 2002 |
| The Project |
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The Students
The Sights |
CTIO's facilities are available for use for approved projects by qualified astronomers. CTIO is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy Inc. (AURA), under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation as part of the National Optical Astronomy Observatories, which also operates Kitt Peak National Observatory in Tucson Arizona. The NSF is also the operating agency for the US portion of the International Gemini Project. The European Southern Observatory and the Carnegie Institution of Washington also operate major astronomical observatories nearby.
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