English

A Binary-Based Reassessment of the Age and Stellar Properties of NGC 7789 Using Twelve Binary Components

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics 2026-01-26 v1 Astrophysics of Galaxies Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics

Abstract

We present a binary-based reassessment of the age of the intermediate-age open cluster NGC 7789, together with well-constrained stellar parameters for twelve components in six SB2 systems, including two eclipsing binaries. Our analysis employs a unified modelling framework that combines radial-velocity orbits, TESS light curves, and blue-to-IR spectral energy distributions (SEDs), providing a robust alternative to traditional isochrone-based age determinations. By adopting common cluster-wide parameters (age, distance, and line-of-sight extinction) when solving for the stellar parameters of the binary components, we obtain a coherent set of masses, radii, effective temperatures, and luminosities for all twelve stars. The combined SED, eclipsing-binary, and radial-velocity analysis yields a well-constrained cluster age of 1.26±0.091.26 \pm 0.09 Gyr and an extinction of AV=0.90±0.05A_V = 0.90 \pm 0.05 mag, while remaining consistent with the Gaia DR3 distance of d2.06d \simeq 2.06 kpc used as an external prior. An independent Gaia DR3 astrometric analysis gives a distance of 2082±1422082 \pm 142 pc and confirms the membership of all six systems. The twelve binary components occupy the turnoff and subgiant regions of the cluster, enabling stringent evolutionary tests: in the radius--mass, radius--temperature, and temperature--mass diagrams, they show excellent agreement with modern stellar evolution models for the derived cluster parameters. NGC 7789 thus serves as a valuable benchmark for multi-observable, binary-based age determinations in open cluster studies.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2601.16265,
  title  = {A Binary-Based Reassessment of the Age and Stellar Properties of NGC 7789 Using Twelve Binary Components},
  author = {Kadri Yakut and Belinda Kalomeni and Saul Rappaport},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.16265},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

11 pages, 7 figures, 6 tables, Accepted for publication in MNRAS