ON QUASI-PERIODIC BRIGHTNESS VARIATIONS OF P Cygni: Dedicated to the 110th anniversary of the academician E. Kharadze

Until recent decades, it was considered that all Luminous Blue Variables are single massive and high luminosity stars. Now for several of them a companion has been found. The opinion exists that P Cygni also has a companion with an orbital period of about seven years. In accordance with this hypothe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Astrophysics 2018-03, Vol.61 (1), p.22
Main Authors: Kochiashvili, N, Beradze, S, Natsvlishvili, R, Kochiashvili, I, Vardosanidze, M, Pannicke, A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Brightness (Photometry)
Observations
Optical properties
Stars
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Summary:Until recent decades, it was considered that all Luminous Blue Variables are single massive and high luminosity stars. Now for several of them a companion has been found. The opinion exists that P Cygni also has a companion with an orbital period of about seven years. In accordance with this hypothesis, a known powerful eruption occurred near the periastron point. P Cygni, as well as several other wellknown Luminous Blue Variable (LBV) stars, is a so-called "Supernova Impostor" because it survived after a powerful outburst. However, there were cases during the last decade when a LBV star survived after a powerful giant eruption, and then after a few years, explode as a supernova. Because the real reason for the great eruption and characteristic light variability of LBV, including P Cygni, is not established yet, any kind of photometric and spectral observational data is very significant. We present the results of analysis of the long-term photometric observations of hypergiant P Cygni. On the basis of these data, different quasi-periodic brightness changes of the star were revealed.
ISSN:0571-7256
1573-8191
DOI:10.1007/s10511-018-9512-2