Duplicity in Hubble Space Telescope Guide Stars: Fine Guidance Sensor Serendipitous Survey Results

• Published in: Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 1998-09, Vol.110 (751), p.1012-1025
• Main Authors: Schneider, Glenn , Hershey, John L. , Wenz, Michael T.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0004-6280; 1538-3873
• DOI: 10.1086/316219

Data from the HST Fine Guidance Sensor interferometers, covering 22 months of guide-star acquisition operations, have been analyzed for evidence of stellar duplicity. The data comprise a survey of observed guide stars, all of which are taken from the HST Guide Star Catalog, ranging in magnitude from 9 to 14. The survey results cover a parameter space for the newly found doubles, for the fainter stars, which are of smaller limiting angular separations than in any previous surveys. The normal HST engineering telemetry data from 13,979 acquisitions on 4882 stars have been processed. The FGS guidance data can reveal duplicity with separations ranging from approximately 30 mas, for the brighter stars, with small magnitude differences, up to the neighborhood of 500 mas, and in some cases to 1000 mas. The fraction of guide stars indicating duplicity is a function of the statistical criteria used but is over 5 percent at a very high level of confidence. If some of the brighter and closer pairs could be identified as nearby, their orbital motions would be rapid enough to allow a mass and distance determination on a timescale of a decade if followed with ground-based interferometric and spectroscopic instruments. A brief catalog of doubles is given, nearly all of which are of certain duplicity. (Author)