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Ritter Cataclysmic Binaries Catalog (7.21 Edition)

Published by High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center | National Aeronautics and Space Administration | Metadata Last Checked: February 21, 2026 | Last Modified: 2026-02-17
This HEASARC database table contains information on cataclysmic binaries only, as taken from the Catalog of Cataclysmic Binaries, Low-Mass X-ray Binaries, and Related Objects (7th Edition, Release 7.21, March 2014) of Ritter & Kolb. The complete catalog lists coordinates, apparent magnitudes, orbital parameters, stellar parameters of the components, and other characteristic properties of 1166 cataclysmic binaries, 105 low-mass X-ray binaries, and 500 related objects with known or suspected orbital periods. The HEASARC has for simplicity split this catalog into three Browse database tables, one for each class of objects: the present table (RITTERCV) containing the cataclysmic binaries' data, a second one (<a href="/W3Browse/star-catalog/ritterlmxb.html">RITTERLMXB</a>) containing the low-mass X-ray binaries' data, and a third one (<a href="/W3Browse/star-catalog/ritterrbin.html">RITTERRBIN</a>) containing the related binaries' data. The literature published before 1 January 2014 has, as far as possible, been taken into account. Cataclysmic binaries are semi-detached binaries consisting of a white dwarf (or a white dwarf precursor) primary and a low-mass secondary which is filling its critical Roche lobe. The secondary is not necessarily unevolved, it may even be a highly evolved star, as, for example, in the case of the AM CVn-type stars. This table was last updated by the HEASARC in April 2014 based on the cbdata.dat file from the <a href="https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/ftp/cats/B/cb">CDS Catalog B/cb</a>. This is a service provided by NASA HEASARC .

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