American Astronomical Society, Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society, 5(7), p. 95, 2023
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Abstract B-type stars with masses up to about 8 M ⊙ are the progenitors of the heavier white dwarfs yet our knowledge about their multiplicity is still incomplete. The nearby subgiant HIP 92041 = ϕ Sagittarii has had claims of binarity in the past but they have all been refuted as spurious. In this report we show that ϕ Sgr is a binary after all based on a VLTI/GRAVITY interferometric observation. The companion has a K band flux ratio of 6% and a projected separation ρ = 17.7 mas ↔ 1.3 au. The inferred isochrone masses 3.5M ⊙ + 1.6M ⊙ make ϕ Sgr a potential progenitor for a white dwarf binary with a combined mass exceeding the Chandrasekhar limit.