YZ Cassiopeiae explained

YZ Cassiopeiae (21 Cas) is a star system 103.8pc away from Earth, in the constellation Cassiopeia. It comprises three stars: an eclipsing Algol-type binary and a visually fainter star about 3000 AU distant.

The primary star in the YZ Cassiopeiae system is a white subgiant (main sequence) star of spectral type A1Vm and 2.31 solar masses with a less massive main sequence dwarf star of type F2V[1] and 1.35 . The apparent magnitude of the eclipsing binary varies from 5.65 to 6.05[1] with a period of 4.4672 days. Combined, they appear to have a spectral type of A2IV.

The binary has a dimmer (magnitude 9.7 according to Norton, or 10.5 by SIMBAD) companion of 0.8 orbiting with a period of about 86 580 years.

Notes and References

  1. Jerzy M. Kreiner, Chun-Hwey Kim, Il-Seong Nha. YZ CAS: Atlas of O-C Diagrams of Eclipsing Binary Stars