Abstract
UNTIL the requisite details are available in the Astrophysical Journal regarding Dr. O. Struve's discovery of the precise nature of the eclipsing binary system of ɛ Aurigæ, no useful comments can here be made. It may be inferred, however, from the Press reports that a study by Dr. Struve of the infrared spectrum of the star obtained with sufficiently high dispersion has shown that the chief component of the system is a super-giant star with a radius some 3,000 times that of the sun. The star of largest radius hitherto known is Antares, the radius of which is about 450 times the sun's, ɛ Aurigæ, the light variation of which is of Algol type but with an exceptionally long period of 27·1 years, has long been the subject of intensive observation, mainly in Germany, in the United States and in Canada. The spectroscopic history of the star up to 1928 is summarized in “Handbuch der Astrophysik”, 6, Pt. 2, 466 (1928). Results obtained at the Yerkes Observatory by Frost, Struve and Elvey at the last light minimum in 1928–29 are given in the publications of that observatory in vol. 7, Pt. 2. During the same epoch, Adams and Sanford were able to distinguish clearly on their high-dispersion spectra taken at Mount Wilson a faint component on the redward side of the enhanced lines and those of hydrogen. They pointed out the necessity of obtaining high-dispersion spectrograms of ε Aurigæ at other epochs of the period of light variation in order to trace the origin of the faint spectral component.
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ε Aurigæ—a Super-giant Star. Nature 141, 154 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/141154b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/141154b0