The search for low mass-ratio binary stellar systems.

Massive stars, from birth to death, play a vital role in our Universe. Characteristically, massive stars (M_ZAMS > 8M_0) bum bright and die young. Their spectacular deaths lead to core-collapse Supernovae which enrich the Universe with lighter metals like carbon and oxygen, leave black holes or neutron stars as remnants, and produce gravitational waves. Massive stars tend to be in binary systems of two or more stars with 90% of massive stars having one or more companions. We utilized the high spatial resolution imaging techniques of SPHERE in order to resolve milliarcsecond binary systems with contrast ratios of up to 10 mag in the infrared and detect stellar companions to massive stars in the subsolar mass ranges. We employed IRDIS and IFS to simultaneously capture dual-band imaging and spectroscopy of seven massive stars (ranging from O4V - O9V) in Ml7. Preliminary inspections find that four out of seven targets have a companion with angular separations of 0.1" -- 0.5". With SPHERE, we observe low-mass companions to massive stars that may still be forming and expand the general understanding of binary systems for all mass ratios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]