QS Virginis is an eclipsing binary system approximately 157 light-year

Light-year

A light-year, also light year or lightyear is a unit of length, equal to just under 10 trillion kilometres...

s away from Sun

Sun

The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...

, forming a cataclysmic variable. The system comprises an eclipsing white dwarf

White dwarf

A white dwarf, also called a degenerate dwarf, is a small star composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. They are very dense; a white dwarf's mass is comparable to that of the Sun and its volume is comparable to that of the Earth. Its faint luminosity comes from the emission of stored...

 star and red dwarf

Red dwarf

According to the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, a red dwarf star is a small and relatively cool star, of the main sequence, either late K or M spectral type....

 star that orbit each other every 3.37 hour

Hour

The hour is a unit of measurement of time. In modern usage, an hour comprises 60 minutes, or 3,600 seconds...

s.

Possible third body

In 2009 the discovery of an extrasolar planet in orbit around the binary star was announced, detected by variations in the timings of the eclipses of the two stars. The planet was announced to have a minimum mass

Minimum mass

In astronomy, minimum mass is the lower-bound calculated mass of observed objects such as planets, stars and binary systems, nebulae, and black holes. Minimum mass is a widely cited statistic for extrasolar planets...

 6.4 times the mass of Jupiter

Jupiter

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...

, in an elliptical orbit 4.2 Astronomical Unit

Astronomical unit

An astronomical unit is a unit of length equal to about or approximately the mean Earth–Sun distance....

s away from binary.

Subsequent observations revealed that the timings were not following the pattern predicted by the planetary model. While the observed variations in eclipse times may be caused by a third body, the best fit model orbit is for an object with minimum mass 0.05 solar mass

Solar mass

The solar mass , , is a standard unit of mass in astronomy, used to indicate the masses of other stars and galaxies...

es (about 50 times the mass of Jupiter) in a highly eccentric 14-year orbit.

See also

• Algol
• HW Virginis
  HW Virginis
  HW Virginis, abbreviated HW Vir, is an eclipsing binary system approximately 590 light-years away in the constellation of Virgo. The system comprises an eclipsing B-type subdwarf star and red dwarf star...
  
  
• NN Serpentis
  NN Serpentis
  NN Serpentis is an eclipsing binary system approximately 1670 light-years away, likely a cataclysmic variable star. The system comprises an eclipsing white dwarf star and red dwarf star...
  
  
• CM Draconis
  CM Draconis
  CM Draconis is an eclipsing binary system approximately 47 light-years away in the constellation of Draco . The system consists of two nearly identical red dwarf stars located in the constellation Draco. The two stars orbit each other with a period of 1.27 days with a separation of 2.7 million...
  
  
• DP Leonis
  DP Leonis
  DP Leonis is an eclipsing binary system approximately 1304 light-years away from the Sun, probably a cataclysmic variable star of the AM Herculis-type also known as polars...
  
  
• List of extrasolar planets