Table · dataset · 2026
W Serpentis light curve from A. Fresa taken in 1956
Listed in IVOA Registry (Virtual Observatory)
The unusal light curve of the massive eclipsing binary W Ser was recently observed with high S/N and fast cadence by the NASA TESS mission.
Description
The TESS light curve records two eclipses and relatively fast variations outside of the eclipses. The eclipse timings verify the period increase of the binary, and the period derivative implies a mass transfer rate in excess of 1e-5M_{sun}_/yr.
The light curve shows a fading trend from just after an eclipse until the start of the next eclipse. The brightest flux source in the system is the accretion torus surrounding the mass gainer star, and we argue that these orbital-phase related fadings are the result of the injection of cooler gas from the mass donor entering the outskirts of the accretion torus. There are cyclic variations in the out-of-eclipse sections of the light curve that vary on a 2.8day timescale.
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This equals the orbital period for gas in the outer regions of the accretion torus, so the photometric variations are probably the result of transitory, overdense regions that form at the rim of the accretion torus.
Links
Where it is published
- Reference page cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/AJ/169/340 ↗
landing page · from IVOA Registry
Documentation and papers
- ADS 2025AJ....169..340G ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2025AJ....169..340G ↗
publication · from IVOA Registry
Catalogue records · 2
- VOResource record dc.g-vo.org/oai.xml?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=ivo_vor&identifier=ivo%3… ↗
metadata API · from IVOA Registry
- Registry record (GAVO) dc.g-vo.org/I/cds.vizier/j/aj/169/340 ↗
catalogue entry · from IVOA Registry
Topics
- Stated by source
- Optical
- From keywords
- Astronomy & Astrophysics
Provenance · 1 source records, 8 field assertions
| Source | Key | Last seen | Raw |
|---|---|---|---|
| IVOA Registry (Virtual Observatory) | ivo://cds.vizier/j/aj/169/340 | 13 d ago | JSON v1 |
| Field | Assertion | Extractor | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| access_level | source · IVOA Registry | connector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[field].local:field:astronomy | mapping · IVOA Registry | connector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[modality].ivoa_waveband:optical | source · IVOA Registry | connector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0 | |
| description | source · IVOA Registry | connector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0 | rr.resource.res_description |
| license_text | source · IVOA Registry | connector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0 | |
| publication_date | source · IVOA Registry | connector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0 | |
| title | source · IVOA Registry | connector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0 | rr.resource.res_title |
| updated_date | source · IVOA Registry | connector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0 |