HD 202908 - A young, solar-type triple system

Abstract

HD 202908 is a solar-type, spectroscopic-visual triple system. High-dispersion spectroscopic observations show that the primary visual component is a double-lined spectroscopic binary with a period of 3.966 days and a mass ratio of 1.0. Velocity changes due to motion in the long-period, 76-year orbit are now perceptible. Over the next 5 years, these changes may amount to 30 km/s for the single star. Continued spectroscopic and visual observations through nodal and periastron passage of the highly eccentric visual orbit, which will occur nearly simultaneously about 1985.5, will permit the accurate determination of the masses and luminosities of the three components. Contrary to expectation, the short-period and long-period orbits are not coplanar. The large lithium abundances, strength of the Ca II emission lines, and rotational velocities all suggest that this multiple system has an age similar to that of the Hyades cluster.