NSVS 7051868: A system in a key evolutionary stage. First multi-color photometric study

•We present the first multi-color light curve analysis of the eclipsing binary star NSVS 7051868.•The system belong to the A-subtype W Ursae Majoris systems.•A moderate degree of contact and a relatively large difference of temperature between the components is found.•NSVS 7051868 may be in a key evolutionary stage of the TRO theory.•Its position in the H-R diagram is showed and the physical parameter are estimated.

The first CCD photometric complete light curves of the eclipsing binary NSVS 7051868 were obtained during six nights in January 2016 in the B, V and Ic bands using the 0.25 m telescope of the Stazione Astronomica Betelgeuse in Magnago, Italy.These observations confirm the short period (P = 0.517 days) variation found by Shaw and collaborators in their online list (http://www.physast.uga.edu/~jss/nsvs/) of periodic variable stars found in the Northern Sky Variability Survey.The light curves were modelled using the Wilson–Devinney code and the elements obtained from this analysis are used to compute the physical parameters of the system in order to study its evolutionary status.A grid of solutions for several fixed values of mass ratio was calculated.A reasonable fit of the synthetic light curves of the data indicate that NSVS 7051868 is an A-subtype W Ursae Majoris contact binary system, with a low mass ratio of q = 0.22, a degree of contact factor f = 35.5% and inclination i = 85°. Our light curves shows a time of constant light in the secondary eclipse of approximately 0.1 in phase. The light curve solution reveals a component temperature difference of about 700 K. Both the value of the fill-out factor and the temperature difference suggests that NSVS 7051868 is a system in a key evolutionary stage of the Thermal Relaxation Oscillation theory.The distance to NSVS 7051868 was calculated as 180 pc from this analysis, taking into account interstellar extinction.