A new level of photometric precision: WIRE observations of eclipsing binary stars

TL;DR

The paper discusses WIRE satellite's high-precision photometry of bright stars, focusing on seven eclipsing binary systems, highlighting challenges and future prospects for space-based asteroseismology missions.

Contribution

It presents the status and results of WIRE's observations of eclipsing binaries, illustrating the potential and challenges of space-based photometry for stellar studies.

Findings

High-precision photometry achieved for bright stars

Insights into eclipsing binary systems obtained

Challenges faced by space missions discussed

Abstract

The WIRE satellite was launched in March 1999 and was the first space mission to do asteroseismology from space on a large number of stars. WIRE has produced very high-precision photometry of a few hundred bright stars (V<6) with temporal coverage of several weeks, including K giants, solar-like stars, delta Scuti stars, and beta Cepheids. In the current work we will describe the status of science done on seven detached eclipsing binary systems. Our results emphasize some of the challenges and exciting results expected from coming satellite missions like COROT and Kepler. Unfortunately, on 23 October 2006, communication with WIRE failed after almost eight years in space. Because of this sad news we will give a brief history of WIRE at the end of this paper.