The exact period is still unknown. While the two stars appear very close in the telescope they are really more than 11 billion miles apart. The two stars are 90 and 30 times brighter than our sun, though both are slightly cooler stars. This object is located in the faint constellation of Cancer the crab. Astronomers believe that at least one half of all stars are part of multiple star systems composed of two or more suns.
Iota is such a star system.
While the combined light of its two stars is over 50 times that of our sun, its great distance of 170 light years makes it a faint 4th magnitude star in the northern part of Cancer. The brighter star is a yellow giant, somewhat more yellow than our sun and its companion is a hot blue star. This color contrast is easily seen in any small telescope. The Praesepe or Beehive cluster is one of the largest, nearest and brightest star clusters. It is clearly visible to the naked eye as a fuzzy patch of light in the center of Cancer.