IUE Observations of the Two Peculiar Binary Systems Beta Lyrae and Upsilon Sagittarii

The common peculiarities of these two systems are: a) the companion is a massive object (probably m2≥10) whose spectrum is not observable; b) both systems show evidence, though in different degrees, of mass-transfer and mass-loss; c) both present, in different degrees, hydrogen deficiency; d) ultraviolet observations have shown, in both cases, the presence of lines of highly ionized elements like N V, C IV, Si IV, probably formed in an extended envelope because they do not show orbital radial velocity shifts, and cannot be explained by the effective temperature of the star whose spectrum we observe. The latter property seems to be common to several close binaries, as shown by the ultraviolet observations with IUE by Plavec and Koch (1979); e) both systems present infrared excess, suggesting the presence of an extended envelope (Gehrz et al. 1974; Lee and Nariai, 1967; Humphreys and Ney, 1974; Treffers et al. 1976).