Our program Precision Ephemeridies for Gravitational wave Searches (PEGS) posted it's first result this month, with the publication of refined orbital parameters for the X-ray binary Sco X-1. This remarkable source was the first X-ray binary ever discovered, and it's 19 hr orbital period was already known to unusually high precision thanks to 89 years of photometric observations. Thanks to new spectroscopic measurements from 2011, analysed by Monash PhD student Shakya Premachandra,we made a significantly more precise measurement, and also projected the uncertainties (including the effects of additional observations) forward into the Advanced LIGO/Virgo observing epoch. The paper is out this month in the Astrophysical Journal.

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Labels: 2014, gravitational waves