Open AccessEclipsing binaries in the All Sky Automated Survey catalogue
Author(s) -
Paczyński B.,
Szczygieł D. M.,
Pilecki B.,
Pojmański G.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
monthly notices of the royal astronomical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.058
H-Index - 383
eISSN - 1365-2966
pISSN - 0035-8711
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.10223.x
Subject(s) - physics , sky , stars , astrophysics , astronomy
The All Sky Automated Survey (ASAS) is a long‐term project to monitor bright variable stars over the whole sky. It has discovered 50 099 variables brighter than V < 14 mag south of declination +28°, and among them 11 076 eclipsing binaries. We present a preliminary analysis of 5384 contact, 2949 semi‐detached, and 2743 detached systems. The statistics of the distribution provides a qualitative confirmation of decades old idea of Flannery and Lucy that the W UMa‐type binaries evolve through a series of relaxation oscillations: the ASAS finds comparable number of contact and semi‐detached systems. The most surprising result is a very small number of detached eclipsing binaries with periods P < 1 d , the systems believed to be the progenitors of the W UMa stars. As many (perhaps all) contact binaries have companions, there is a possibility that some were formed in a Kozai cycle, as suggested by Eggleton and his associates.