Y Sextantis
Y Sextantis, abbreviated as Y Sex, is a variable star system in the equatorial constellation of Sextans. The system is invisible to the naked eye with a mean apparent visual magnitude of 9.88. It is located roughly at 1,300 light years from the Sun based on parallax.
Possible architecture for Y Sextantis' multiple system | |
| Observation data Epoch J2000.0 Equinox J2000.0 | |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Sextans |
| Right ascension | 10h 02m 47.96897s |
| Declination | +01° 05′ 40.1839″ |
| Apparent magnitude (V) | 9.88 (10.08 + 12.70) |
| Characteristics | |
| Spectral type | F3/5V or F5/6V |
| B−V color index | 0.479±0.072 |
| Variable type | W UMa |
| Astrometry | |
| Radial velocity (Rv) | +13.12±7.76 km/s |
| Proper motion (μ) | RA: +0.282 mas/yr Dec.: +5.112 mas/yr |
| Parallax (π) | 2.5554 ± 0.2972 mas |
| Distance | approx. 1,300 ly (approx. 390 pc) |
| Details | |
| A | |
| Mass | 1.471±0.040 M☉ |
| Radius | 1.568±0.019 R☉ |
| Luminosity | 4.305±0.528 L☉ |
| Temperature | 6,650±163 K |
| B | |
| Mass | 0.287±0.020 M☉ |
| Radius | 0.795±0.017 R☉ |
| Luminosity | 0.979±0.134 L☉ |
| Temperature | 6,448±153 K |
| Other designations | |
| Database references | |
| SIMBAD | data |
The variability of this system was first announced by C. Hoffmeister in 1934. It was determined to be a short period, strongly-interacting eclipsing binary system. Observations of the light variations up until 1979 were used by G. Hill to generate orbital properties, providing an orbital inclination of 76.8°±0.3°.
This is a multiple star system. The two main components have apparent magnitudes of 10.08 and 12.70, and are separated by 0.50 arcseconds. The brighter component is a W Ursae Majoris variable eclipsing contact binary star system, whose two component stars share a common outer layer. Because the two components share their outer layers as the components of W Ursae Majoris do, they have the same stellar classification, and are classified as yellow F-type main sequence dwarfs. The components take 0.419822800 days (roughly 10 hours) to revolve around common barycentre. Orbital period variations would suggest the presence of additional perturbing objects, one of them likely substellar.