OCCULTATION OF THE T TAURI STAR RW AURIGAE A BY ITS TIDALLY DISRUPTED DISK

Journal Article · Fri Nov 01 04:00:00 EDT 2013 · Astronomical Journal (New York, N.Y. Online)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-6256/146/5/112· OSTI ID:22273308

Rodriguez, Joseph E.; Stassun, Keivan G. ^[1]; Pepper, Joshua; Siverd, Robert J.; Cargile, Phillip ^[2]; Beatty, Thomas G.; Gaudi, B. Scott ^[3]

---

1. Department of Physics, Fisk University, 1000 17th Avenue North, Nashville, TN 37208 (United States)
2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vanderbilt University, 6301 Stevenson Center, Nashville, TN 37235 (United States)
3. Department of Astronomy, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210 (United States)

RW Aur A is a classical T Tauri star, believed to have undergone a reconfiguration of its circumstellar environment as a consequence of a recent flyby of its stellar companion, RW Aur B. This interaction stripped away part of the circumstellar disk of RW Aur A, leaving a tidally disrupted ''arm'' and a short truncated circumstellar disk. We present photometric observations of the RW Aur system from the Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope survey showing a long and deep dimming that occurred from 2010 September until 2011 March. The dimming has a depth of ∼2 mag, a duration of ∼180 days, and was confirmed by archival observations from American Association of Variable Star Observers. We suggest that this event is the result of a portion of the tidally disrupted disk occulting RW Aur A, specifically a fragment of the tidally disrupted arm. The calculated transverse linear velocity of the occulter is in excellent agreement with the measured relative radial velocity of the tidally disrupted arm. Using simple kinematic and geometric arguments, we show that the occulter cannot be a feature of the RW Aur A circumstellar disk, and we consider and discount other hypotheses. We also place constraints on the thickness and semimajor axis of the portion of the arm that occulted the star.

• OSTI ID: 22273308
• Journal Information: Astronomical Journal (New York, N.Y. Online), Journal Name: Astronomical Journal (New York, N.Y. Online) Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 146; ISSN 1538-3881
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ASTRONOMY
ASTROPHYSICS
ECLIPSE
LIMITING VALUES
PROTOPLANETS
RADIAL VELOCITY
T TAURI STARS
TELESCOPES