Hen 3-160 is reported in Belczynski et al.'s (2000) catalog as a symbiotic binary system with M7 giant donor. Using V- and I-band photometry collected over 20 years we have found that the giant is a Mira variable pulsating with 242.5-day period. The period-luminosity relation locates Hen 3-160 at the distance of about 9.4 kpc, and its Galactic coordinates (l=267.7∘, b=−7.9∘) place it ∼1.3 kpc above the disc. This position combined with relatively high proper motions (pmRA=−1.5 mas yr−1, pmDEC=+2.9 mas yr−1, Gaia DR2) indicates that Hen 3-160 has to be a Galactic extended thick-disc object. Our red optical and infrared spectra show the presence of ZrO and YO molecular bands that appear relatively strong compared to the TiO bands. Here we propose that the giant in this system is intrinsic S star, enriched in products of slow neutron capture processes occurring in its interior during an AGB phase which would make Hen 3-160 the first symbiotic system with Mira variable S star.
@article{arxiv.1812.09535,
title = {Hen 3-160 - the first symbiotic binary with Mira variable S star},
author = {C. Galan and J. Mikolajewska and B. Monard and K. Ilkiewicz and D. Pienkowski and M. Gromadzki},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1812.09535},
year = {2019}
}