2003/03/25 by D. Graczyk, M. Mikolajewski, M. Mikołajewski +4 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20030430
published as Astron.Astrophys.403:1089-1094,2003 · 7 pages, 7 figures, LaTeX2e, accepted by A&A
arxiv created 2003/03/25 · openalex publication_date 2003/05/23 · arxiv updated 2011/05/23 · openalex created_date 2022/10/04 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
EE Cep is an eclipsing binary with a period of 5.6 years. The next eclipse will occur soon, in May–June 2003, and all available past eclipses were collected and briefly analysed. EE Cep shows very large changes of the shape and the depth of minima during different eclipses, however it is possible to single out some persistent features. The analysis suggests that the eclipsing body should be a long object surrounded by an extended semi-transparent envelope. As an explanation, a model of a precessing optically thick disc, inclined to the plane of the binary orbit, is invoked. The changes of its spatial orientation, which is defined by the inclination of the disc and the tilt, induced most probably by precession of the disc spin axis with a period of about 50 years, produce strange photometric behaviour of this star. The Hα emission, and possibly the NaI absorptions, show significant changes during several months outside of the eclipse phase.