VZ Librae: A truly unsolved quadruple system containing double close binaries

New orbital period and period variation of the W UMa-type eclipsing binary, VZ Librae, are presented. It is discovered that the orbital period of VZ Librae shows a periodic change with an amplitude of 0.0200 d and a period of 17.1 year. The cyclic period change can be explained as the light travel-time orbit of a tertiary component in the system. This is consistent with the spectroscopic results by Lu et al. [Lu, W.-X., Rucinski, S.M., Ogloza, W., 2001. AJ 122, 402] who found a faint spectroscopic companion in the system (VZ Librae B) that may be a close binary. Based on the light travel-time analysis, it is shown that the mass of the tertiary component is no less than 1.07M⊙, which is much larger than that (M3 ∼ 0.67M⊙) estimated by D'Angelo et al. [D'Angelo, C., van Kerkwijk, M.H., Rucinski, S.M., 2006. AJ 132, 650]. This finding, in combination with its low luminosity, indicates that the spectroscopic companion is a close binary star suggesting that VZ Librae is an unsolved quadruple system containing double close binary stars in a separation less than 7.2 AU. As in the case of V899 Herculis, it is a good astrophysical laboratory to study the formation and evolution of overcontact binaries and multiple systems.