Observational Evidence for a Third Body in AS Camelopardalis (Abstract)

Volume 35 number 1 (2007)

V. S. Kozyreva

A. I. Zakharov

Abstract

(Abstract only) The eclipsing variable AS Camelopardalis is a binary system with an anomalously slow apsidal motion. So far no acceptable explanation has been presented for this phenomenon in the framework of classical theory of gravitation. We observed this variable in 1981 and from 1993 to 1996. We determined the times of minima and analyzed them to reveal a light-time effect with an amplitude of 3 minutes and a period of 2.2 years, thereby providing evidence for a third body in the system. The allowance for the third-component effects may resolve the discrepancy between the theoretical and observed rates of apsidal motion.