MML 53: a new low-mass, pre-main sequence eclipsing binary in the Upper Centaurus-Lupus region discovered by SuperWASP

¹ School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, North Haugh, St Andrews KY16 9SS, UK
² Department of Physics & Astronomy, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37235, USA
e-mail: leslie.hebb@vanderbilt.edu
³ Department of Physics & Astronomy, Box 516, 751 20 Uppsala, Sweden
⁴ Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3RH, UK
⁵ Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge University, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, UK
⁶ Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
⁷ Astrophysics Group, Keele University, Staffordshire ST5 5BG, UK
⁸ Astrophysics Research Centre, School of Mathematics & Physics, Queen’s University, University Road, Belfast BT7 1NN, UK
⁹ Las Cumbres Observatory, 6740 Cortona Dr. Suite 102, Santa Barbara, CA 93117, USA
¹⁰ Center for Astrophysics & Planetary Science, University of Kent, Canterbury CT2 7NH, UK
¹¹ Department of Physics, Fisk University, 1000 N. 17th Ave, Nashville, TN 37208, USA

Received: 13 January 2010
Accepted: 10 August 2010

Abstract

We announce the discovery of a new low-mass, pre-main sequence eclipsing binary, MML 53. Previous observations of MML 53 found it to be a pre-main sequence spectroscopic multiple associated with the 15–22 Myr Upper Centaurus-Lupus cluster. We identify the object as an eclipsing binary for the first time through the analysis of multiple seasons of time series photometry from the SuperWASP transiting planet survey. Re-analysis of a single archive spectrum shows MML 53 to be a spatially unresolved triple system of young stars which all exhibit significant lithium absorption. Two of the components comprise an eclipsing binary with period, P = 2.097891(6) ± 0.000005 and mass ratio, q ~ 0.8. Here, we present the analysis of the discovery data.