J/AJ/170/91 NESSI: resolving wide binaries in Gaia & SUPERWIDE (Hartman+, 2025)
Resolving the unresolved: Using NESSI to search for unresolved companions in
low-mass disk wide binaries.
Hartman Z.D., van Belle G., Lepine S., Everett M.E., Medan I.
<Astron. J., 170, 91 (2025)>
=2025AJ....170...91H 2025AJ....170...91H
ADC_Keywords: Stars, double and multiple; Positional data; Proper motions;
Parallaxes, trigonometric; Photometry; Optical
Keywords: Stellar astronomy ; Observational astronomy ; Wide binary stars ;
Multiple stars
Abstract:
Stellar systems consisting of three or more stars are not an uncommon
occurrence in the Galaxy. Nearly 50% of solar-type wide binaries with
separations >1000AU are actually higher-order multiples with one
component being a close binary. Additionally, the higher-order
multiplicity fraction appears to be correlated with the physical
separation of the widest component. These facts have motivated some of
our current theories behind how the widest stellar systems formed,
which can have separations on the order of or larger than protostellar
cores. However, it is unclear if the correlation between wide binary
separation and higher-order multiplicity extends to low-mass binaries.
We present initial results of an ongoing speckle imaging survey of
nearby low-mass wide binaries. We find an overall higher-order
multiplicity fraction for our sample of 42.0%±10.9%. If we include
systems where Gaia indicates that a companion is likely present, this
fraction increases to 62.0%±14.2%. This is consistent with previous
results from both higher-mass stars and a previous result for low-mass
wide binaries. However, we do not detect the expected increase in
higher-order multiplicity fraction with separation, as was seen with
previous studies. We briefly explore why higher-order multiplicity
statistics could be different in low-mass stars, and what the
significance might be for models of wide binary formation.
Description:
The sample for this paper was taken from the SUPERWIDE catalog
(J/ApJS/247/66) of wide binaries. This catalog was created using the
second Gaia data release (DR2, I/345) supplemented with high-proper-motion
stars from the SUPERBLINK catalog. Since SUPERWIDE was published,
Gaia Data Release 3 (DR3, I/355) has been released. We have matched
the DR2 identifiers in SUPERWIDE to their corresponding DR3
identifiers, so all data used in calculations are the DR3 data.
Observations using the NN-Explore Exoplanet Stellar Speckle Imager
(NESSI) on the 3.5m Wisconsin-Indiana-Yale-NOIRLab (WIYN) telescope in
Arizona, USA, were carried out in queue mode over a total of four
nights in the 2019A semester. For our survey, we collected data using
two narrowband filters (Δλ=40nm) centered on 562 and
832nm. We will refer to these filters as the "blue" and "red" filters.
Fifty-six wide systems were observed over the program's lifetime
plus the primary component of another system.
For speckle imaging with NESSI, the typical observing strategy is to
observe in data cubes of 1000 frames, with each frame being taken
using a 40ms exposure. We also cross-match our sample with Simbad and
search for previous detections, and give the targets' Washington
Visual Double Star Catalog (B/wds) identifier when available.
File Summary:
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FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ReadMe 80 . This file
table1.dat 88 114 Gaia information on observed wide system components
table2.dat 109 61 Literature search results for close companions
table3.dat 137 59 NESSI wide binary observations and results
table4.dat 84 15 NESSI triple systems from SUPERWIDE with components
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See also:
B/wds : The Washington Visual Double Star Catalog (Mason+ 2001-)
I/345 : Gaia DR2 (Gaia Collaboration, 2018)
I/355 : Gaia DR3 Part 1. Main source (Gaia Collaboration, 2022)
I/357 : Gaia DR3 Part 3. Non-single stars (Gaia Collaboration, 2022)
J/AJ/133/889 : Faint companions of Hipparcos stars (Lepine+, 2007)
J/AJ/141/45 : Speckle observations of HIP stars (Horch+, 2011)
J/AJ/142/19 : Speckle observations of KOI (Howell+, 2011)
J/AJ/142/46 : Speckle interferometry at USNO. XVII. (Mason+, 2011)
J/AJ/142/138 : All-sky catalog of bright M dwarfs (Lepine+, 2011)
J/ApJS/192/2 : A Bayesian search for binaries in Hipparcos (Shaya+, 2011)
J/AJ/144/102 : Catalog of wide companions to Hipparcos stars (Tokovinin+, 2012)
J/AJ/143/124 : Speckle interferometry at the USNO. XVIII. (Mason+, 2012)
J/MNRAS/429/859 : New companions to nearby low-mass stars (Jodar+, 2013)
J/AJ/145/52 : Abundances of late K and M dwarfs in binary systems (Mann+, 2013)
J/AJ/147/20 : Spectroscopy of 447 nearby M dwarfs (Newton+, 2014)
J/AJ/147/86 : From binaries to multiples. I. The FG-67 sample (Tokovinin, 2014)
J/AJ/147/87 : From binaries to multiples. II. Stat. data (Tokovinin, 2014)
J/AJ/150/57 : SLoWPoKES-II catalog (Dhital+, 2015)
J/MNRAS/472/675 : Wide binaries in Tycho-Gaia: search method (Andrews+, 2017)
J/AJ/153/212 : Obs. of binary stars at the WIYN telescope (Horch+, 2017)
J/ApJ/835/75 : Common proper motion stars in the Kepler field (Janes, 2017)
J/AJ/153/259 : The GAMBLES extension of the SLoWPoKES catalog (Oelkers+, 2017)
J/ApJ/851/26 : Teff, metallicity and Ti abundance of M dwarfs (Veyette+, 2017)
J/MNRAS/480/4302 : SDSS distant sample of halo wide binaries (Coronado+, 2018)
J/MNRAS/480/4884 : Gaia wide binaries (El-Badry+, 2018)
J/AJ/157/78 : GaiaDR2 double & multiple star systems (Jimenez-Esteban+, 2019)
J/A+A/623/A72 : Hipparcos stars binarity from Gaia pm anomaly (Kervella+, 2019)
J/A+A/626/A31 : Radial velocities of nearby stars (Sperauskas+, 2019)
J/AJ/157/216 : Stellar multipl. rate of M dwarfs within 25pc (Winters+, 2019)
J/ApJS/247/66 : SUPERWIDE: wide binaries in Gaia & SUPERBLINK (Hartman+, 2020)
J/MNRAS/492/1164 : Abundances of Gaia DR2 wide binaries (Hawkins+, 2020)
J/AJ/159/139 : Multiple M dwarf stars with Robo-AO and Gaia DR2 (Lamman+, 2020)
J/ApJS/246/4 : Catalog of ultrawide binary stars from Gaia DR2 (Tian+, 2020)
J/ApJS/254/42 : Hipparcos-Gaia (EDR3) Catalog of Accelerations (Brandt, 2021)
J/AJ/161/21 : 383 KOIs interferometry with WIYN (Colton+, 2021)
J/A+A/649/A6 : Gaia Catalogue of Nearby Stars - GCNS (Gaia collaboration, 2021)
J/AJ/161/295 : Obs. with Differential Speckle Surv. Instr. X. (Horch+, 2021)
J/AJ/161/164 : Observation of 186 TESS stars with NESSI (WYIN) (Howell+, 2021)
J/AJ/161/234 : 1.7 million K and M dwarfs cross-matching (Medan+, 2021)
J/ApJ/921/118 : Abundances of Gaia EDR3 comoving pairs (Nelson+, 2021)
J/ApJ/934/72 : SUPERWIDE wide binary systems with TESS & K2 (Hartman+, 2022)
J/MNRAS/512/3383 : Wide binaries eccentricities with Gaia EDR3 (Hwang+, 2022)
J/AJ/166/218 : New GaiaEDR3 binary candid. within 200pc of Sun (Medan+, 2023)
J/AJ/165/180 : SOAR Speckle Surv, nearby hierarchical systems (Tokovinin, 2023)
J/AJ/167/56 : The POKEMON Speckle Survey of nearby M dwarfs. II. (Clark+, 2024)
Byte-by-byte Description of file: table1.dat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1- 2 I2 --- ID [1/57] Binary System ID (1)
4- 10 F7.3 deg RAdeg Right ascension (ICRS at Epoch=2016.0)
12- 18 F7.3 deg DEdeg Declination (ICRS at Epoch=2016.0)
20- 27 F8.3 mas/yr pmRA [-365.5/283.1] Proper motion in RA, Gaia DR3
29- 36 F8.3 mas/yr pmDE [-253.5/223.5] Proper motion in DE, Gaia DR3
38- 43 F6.3 mas plx [10/49] Gaia DR3 parallax
45- 50 F6.3 mag Gmag [9.8/14.8] Gaia DR3 G-band magnitude
52- 57 F6.3 mag BP-RP [1/2.9]? Gaia DR3 BP-RP color
59- 77 I19 --- GaiaDR3 Gaia DR3 (I/355) source_ID of binary ID
component
79- 88 A10 "Y:M:D" Date NESSI Observation Date
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note (1): For each binary ID system, the primary is listed on the first row,
and the secondary is listed on the subsequent row.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Byte-by-byte Description of file: table2.dat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1- 2 I2 --- ID [1/56] Binary System ID
4- 13 A10 --- WDS Washington Double Star (B/wds) ID
15- 33 I19 --- GaiaDR3-1 Gaia DR3 (I/355) source_ID of ID1 (GaiaID1)
35- 59 A25 --- r_GaiaDR3-1 Literature source 1 (Src1) (1)
61 A1 --- f_GaiaDR3-1 [Y/N] Is ID1 a binary? (Y=yes, N=no)
(BinaryID1) (2)
63- 81 I19 --- GaiaDR3-2 Gaia DR3 (I/355) source_ID of ID2 (GaiaID2)
83- 107 A25 --- r_GaiaDR3-2 Literature source 2 (Src2) (1)
109 A1 --- f_GaiaDR3-2 [Y/N] Is ID2 a binary? (Y=yes, N=no)
(BinaryID2) (3)
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Note (1): Sources combine a code for the type of observation and a reference
code for the literature result. These codes are as follows:
Accel = Gaia acceleration searches
Astro = Gaia astrometric searches
HRI = High Resolution Imaging
PMA = Proper Motion Anomaly/Gaia-Hipparcos accelerations
RV = Radial Velocities
TS = Transit Searches
2009sozzetti = Sozzetti+2009 (J/ApJ/697/544)
2011mason = Mason+2011 (J/AJ/142/46)
2012mason = Mason+2012 (J/AJ/143/124)
2013jodar = Jodar+2013 (J/MNRAS/429/859)
2018collins = Collins+2018 (J/AJ/156/234)
2019sperauskas = Sperauskas+2019 (J/A+A/626/A31)
2020lamman = Lamman+2020 (J/AJ/159/139)
2021brandt = Brandt, 2021 (J/ApJS/254/42)
2021salama = Salama+2021 (J/AJ/162/102)
2023gaiastellarmult = Gaia Collaboration, 2022 (I/357)
hartman2011 = Hartman+2011 (J/AJ/141/166)
Note (2): Occurrences as follows:
Y = Yes (8 occurrences)
N = No (51 occurrences)
Note (3): Occurrences as follows:
Y = Yes (5 occurrences)
N = No (55 occurrences)
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Byte-by-byte Description of file: table3.dat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1- 2 I2 --- ID [1/57] Binary System ID
4- 22 I19 --- GaiaDR3-1 Gaia DR3 (I/355) source_ID of ID1 (GaiaID1)
24- 27 F4.2 mag dmag-1b [0.23/2.67]? Magnitude difference in the
blue filter at 562nm (Deltam1b)
29- 35 F7.3 deg PA-1b [59.3/357.8]? Position angle in the blue
filter at 562nm (theta1b)
37- 41 F5.3 arcsec Sep-1b [0.08/2.7]? Separation in the blue filter
at 562nm (rho1b)
43- 46 F4.2 mag dmag-1r [0.17/4.05]? Magnitude difference in the
red filter at 832nm (Deltam1r)
48- 54 F7.3 deg PA-1r [57.6/358]? Position angle in the red
filter at 832nm (theta1r)
56- 60 F5.3 arcsec Sep-1r [0.08/2.7]? Separation in the red filter at
832nm (rho1r)
62- 80 I19 --- GaiaDR3-2 Gaia DR3 (I/355) source_ID of ID2 (GaiaID2)
82- 85 F4.2 mag dmag-2b [0.78/3.07]? Magnitude difference in the
blue filter at 562nm (Deltam2b)
87- 93 F7.3 deg PA-2b [3.4/218.9]? Position angle in the blue
filter at 562nm (theta2b)
95- 99 F5.3 arcsec Sep-2b [0.17/2.01]? Separation in the blue filter
at 562nm (rho2b)
101- 104 F4.2 mag dmag-2r [0.52/2.75]? Magnitude difference in the
red filter at 832nm (Deltam2r)
106- 112 F7.3 deg PA-2r [3.4/325]? Position angle in the red
filter at 832nm (theta2r)
114- 118 F5.3 arcsec Sep-2r [0.11/2.74]? Separation in the red filter
at 832nm (rho2r)
120 A1 --- Triple [Y/N] Gaia resolved triple? (Y=yes, N=no)
(1)
122- 127 F6.3 % P-Wide [92/100] SUPERWIDE probability
129- 137 F9.2 AU Sep-Wide [1059/187147] Projected physical separation
(rhoWide)
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Note (1): Occurrences as follows:
Y = Yes (16 occurrences)
N = No (43 occurrences)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Byte-by-byte Description of file: table4.dat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1- 2 I2 --- ID [3/55] Binary System ID
4- 22 I19 --- GaiaDR3-1 Gaia DR3 (I/355) source_ID of ID1 (GaiaID1)
24- 42 I19 --- GaiaDR3-2 Gaia DR3 (I/355) source_ID of ID2 (GaiaID2)
44- 62 I19 --- GaiaDR3-3 Gaia DR3 (I/355) source_ID of ID3 (GaiaID3)
64- 82 I19 --- GaiaDR3-4 ? Gaia DR3 (I/355) source_ID of ID4 (GaiaID4)
84 A1 --- Triple [Y/N] Low-mass Triple? (Y=yes, N=no) (1)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note (1): Occurrences as follows:
Y = Yes (9 occurrences)
N = No (6 occurrences)
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History:
From electronic version of the journal
License: CC-BY-4.0
(End) Prepared by [AAS], Robin Leichtnam [CDS] 10-Jun-2026