2003AJ....125..810S

Using both photometric and spectroscopic data, we present a picture of the very unusual blue straggler S1082 in the old open cluster M67 whose light is the sum of a close binary (P=1.0677978 days) and another cluster member. The primary of the close binary and the third star are both blue stragglers in their own rights. Using relative photometry with millimagnitude accuracy, we provide a complete V-band light curve for the system and show a number of unusual features: brightness variations at the 0.01-0.03 mag level from month to month at all phases, a narrow primary and broad secondary eclipse, brightness differences between phases 0.25 and 0.75, and short duration (∼1 hr) drops in brightness. Much of the light-curve variation appears to be because of spot activity on the cooler, fainter, nearly synchronized component of the close binary. We use spectra from several sources to constrain the temperatures of the three known components, the relative flux contributions, rotational velocities, and radial velocities. The data clearly show that the brightest star (narrow-line component) seen in the spectrum is on an orbit with period P=1189±7 days and eccentricity e=0.57±0.08, although we cannot prove that there is a dynamical link between it and the close binary. The systematic velocities of all of the stars indicate that they are members of the cluster. Our models of the system indicate that the cooler component of the close binary lies on the main sequence near the cluster turnoff, while the hotter component lies near an extension of the main sequence blueward of the turnoff, and thus qualifies as a blue straggler by itself. The reduction of the masses of the stars in the close binary compared with previous models indicates that it is possible that the more massive component of the close binary formed from a merger of just two turnoff-mass stars.