A fourth component in the young multiple system V 773 Tau

Abstract

I report on a new component in the pre-main sequence multiple system V 773 Tauri. This second visual companion, V 773 Tau C, with a projected separation of about 0."2 has been detected using speckle interferometry in the near-infrared. Repeated observations from 1996 to 2002 show significant orbital motion and thus confirm the character of the new companion as a gravitationally bound star. Together with the two components of the spectroscopic binary V 773 Tau A and the previously known visual companion V 773 Tau B, the V 773 Tau system appears as a young "mini-cluster" of four T Tauri stars within a sphere of a radius less than 100 AU. V 773 Tau, A, B and C form a triple system that is not hierarchic, but is apparently stable despite of this. The brightness of V 773 Tau C has probably increased over the last years, which may explain its non-detection in previous binary surveys.

Accepted by Astronomy and Astrophysics, 5 pages, 2 figures

References in corpus (2)

• A Test of Pre-Main Sequence Evolutionary Models Across the Stellar/Substellar Boundary Based on Spectra of the Young Quadruple GG Tau
• Orbital motion in T Tauri binary systems

Cited by in corpus (11)

• The XMM-Newton Extended Survey of the Taurus Molecular Cloud (XEST)
• Close Companions to Young Stars. I. A Large Spectroscopic Survey in Chamaeleon I and Taurus-Auriga
• The Gould's Belt Distances Survey (GOBELINS). IV. Distance, Depth and Kinematics of the Taurus Star-Forming Region
• VLBA determination of the distance to nearby star-forming regions V. Dynamical mass, distance and radio structure of V773 Tau A
• Synchrotron emission from the T Tauri binary system V773 Tau A
• Dynamical Masses for Pre-Main Sequence Stars: A Preliminary Physical Orbit for V773 Tau A
• Narrow Na and K Absorption Lines Toward T Tauri Stars - Tracing the Atomic Envelope of Molecular Clouds
• Searching for gas emission lines in Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) spectra of young stars in Taurus
• The eclipse of the V773 Tau B circumbinary disk
• A Surprising Dynamical Mass for V773~Tau~B
• The Multiple Young Stellar Objects of HBC 515: An X-ray and Millimeter-wave Imaging Study in (Pre-main Sequence) Diversity