The 24 Aqr triple system: A closer look at its unique high-eccentricity hierarchical architecture

TL;DR

This paper provides a detailed analysis of the high-eccentricity hierarchical triple system 24 Aqr, including new observational data, orbital solutions, and fundamental parameters, highlighting the system's unique architecture and observational challenges.

Contribution

It introduces new speckle interferometry observations, orbital solutions, and fundamental parameters for 24 Aqr, along with a discussion on its orbital coplanarity and observational requirements.

Findings

New speckle interferometry data collected with LTD.

Derived precise masses and fundamental parameters for all three components.

Proposed a new orbital solution and dynamical parallax close to Gaia measurements.

Abstract

As its periastron passage occurred during the third quarter of 2020, system 24 Aqr is of particular significance. New visual solutions for the latest speckle interferometry observations collected by the Lowell Discovery Telescope (LTD) with its new QWSSI speckle camera are presented here. A variety of techniques were used to analyze the system, including ORBITX code for orbital solution, Al-Wardat's method for analyzing multiple stellar systems, and Edwards' method for analyzing visual and spectroscopic binaries. We derive precise masses and the complete set of its fundamental parameters for the three components, and we introduce a new orbital solution, and a new dynamical parallax, which is very close to the measured value given by Hipparcos 2007 and from that of Gaia DR2. In the next section, we discuss the possibility of a coplanar orbit. In conclusion, we demonstrate that we need a 65-m telescope to resolve the inner binary visually, although an array of telescopes could be used instead.