NIP of Stars: early results and new eclipsing binaries

JAQUE ARANCIBIA, M.; BARBÁ, R.; MORRELL, N. I.; ROMAN LOPES, A.; TORRES ROBLEDO, S.; GUNTHARDT, G.; SOTO, M.; FERRERO, G.; ARIAS, J.; GAMEN, R. C.; FERNANDEZ LAJUS, E.

Florianópolis

Congreso; XIV Latin American Regional IAU Meeting; 2013

IAU

We have performed a near-infrared photometric monitoring of 39 galactic young star clusters and star-forming regions, known as NIP of Stars, between the years 2009-2011, using the Swope telescope at Las Campanas Observatory (Chile) and the RetroCam camera, in H- and Y-bands. This monitoring program is complementary to the Vista Variables in the Via Láctea (VVV), as the brightest sources observed in NIP of Stars are saturated in VVV. The aim of this campaign is to perform a census of photometric variability of such clusters and star-forming regions, with the main goal of discovering massive eclipsing binary stars. In this work, we present a preliminary analysis of this photometric monitoring program with the discovery of tens of candidates for variable stars, among them candidates for massive eclipsing binaries. We included also to the analysis of variability, a small set of images obtained in the Ks with the VISTA telescope in the framework of VVV survey (Minniti et al. 2010). In special, we announce the infrared discovering of four massive eclipsing binaries in the massive young cluster NGC 3603. The stars have been classified spectroscopically as O-type stars, and one of them, MTT 58, has a rare star with a spectral type of O2 If*/WN6, as one of its components. We present a preliminary analysis of the light-curves of these binaries.