WZ Cephei


WZ Cephei is an eclipsing binary star of W Ursae Majoris-type in the constellation of Cepheus, located 880 light years away from the Sun. The stars orbit around a common orbital barycenter every 0.41744 days. Timing analyses have revealed the possible presence of a third low-mass stellar companion in a wide orbit.
Heribert Schneller announced the discovery that the star is a variable star, in 1928.

Presence of a third body

According to Zhu & Qian a third low-mass object of stellar nature could be responsible of orbital period variations observed for WZ Cep with a periodicity of roughly 32 years. Such a companion would yield a minimum mass of 0.17 Solar masses and be located 26.6 Astronomical Units from the eclipsing binary. The star could likely turn out a Proxima Centauri-analog, with inferred luminosity 3.7 percent that of Sun and 20 percent of its radius, according to mass-radius relationship.