Astron. Astrophys. 346, 87-90 (1999)

3. Discussion of results

Very preliminary attempts to derive orbital and light curve solutions from the available data indicated that the star is probably an ellipsoidal, rather than eclipsing binary. There are two reasons for such a conclusion: First, a massive eclipsing binary would have much deeper eclipses for such a short orbital period. Second, for inclinations close to 90^o, the primary mass from the radial-velocity curve would be too small for an early-B star.

However, given the very small number of available radial velocities as well as some uncertainty in the exact value of the orbital period over the long interval covered by radial-velocity data, we postpone a serious attempt for the determination of basic physical elements of BD+61^o2213 for the future. Obviously, an accurate detemination of physical properties of this binary could also help to improve our knowledge of the distance of the cluster NGC 7160 from us.

Systematic spectral and photometric observations of BD+61^o2213 are, therefore, very desirable.

© European Southern Observatory (ESO) 1999

Online publication: May 6, 1999
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