DM ORI: A YOUNG STAR OCCULTED BY A DISTURBANCE IN ITS PROTOPLANETARY DISK

Journal Article · Tue Nov 01 04:00:00 EDT 2016 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3847/0004-637X/831/1/74· OSTI ID:22667261

Rodriguez, Joseph E.; Stassun, Keivan G.; Lund, Michael B.; Weintraub, David A. ^[1]; Cargile, Phillip ^[2]; Shappee, Benjamin J. ^[3]; Siverd, Robert J. ^[4]; Pepper, Joshua ^[5]; Kochanek, Christopher S.; Gaudi, B. Scott; Stanek, Krzysztof Z.; Holoien, Thomas W.-S. ^[6]; James, David ^[7]; Kuhn, Rudolf B. ^[8]; Beatty, Thomas G. ^[9]; Prieto, Jose L. ^[10]; Feldman, Daniel M.; Espaillat, Catherine C. ^[11]

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1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vanderbilt University, 6301 Stevenson Center, Nashville, TN 37235 (United States)
2. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
3. Carnegie Observatories, 813 Santa Barbara Street, Pasadena, CA 91101 (United States)
4. Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network, 6740 Cortona Drive, Suite 102, Santa Barbara, CA 93117 (United States)
5. Department of Physics, Lehigh University, 16 Memorial Drive East, Bethlehem, PA 18015 (United States)
6. Department of Astronomy, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210 (United States)
7. Cerro Tololo InterAmerican Observatory, Casilla 603, La Serena (Chile)
8. South African Astronomical Observatory, P.O. Box 9, Observatory 7935 (South Africa)
9. Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University, 525 Davey Lab, University Park, PA 16802 (United States)
10. Nucleo de Astronoma de la Facultad de Ingeniera, Universidad Diego Portales, Av. Ejercito 441, Santiago (Chile)
11. Department of Astronomy, Boston University, 725 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215 (United States)

In some planet formation theories, protoplanets grow gravitationally within a young star’s protoplanetary disk, a signature of which may be a localized disturbance in the disk’s radial and/or vertical structure. Using time-series photometric observations by the Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope South project and the All-Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae, combined with archival observations, we present the discovery of two extended dimming events of the young star, DM Ori. This young system faded by ∼1.5 mag from 2000 March to 2002 August and then again in 2013 January until 2014 September (depth ∼1.7 mag). We constrain the duration of the 2000–2002 dimming to be < 860 days, and the event in 2013–2014 to be < 585 days, separated by ∼12.5 years. A model of the spectral energy distribution indicates a large infrared excess consistent with an extensive circumstellar disk. Using basic kinematic arguments, we propose that DM Ori is likely being periodically occulted by a feature (possibly a warp or perturbation) in its circumstellar disk. In this scenario, the occulting feature is located >6 au from the host star, moving at ∼14.6 km s{sup −1} and is ∼4.9 au in width. This localized structure may indicate a disturbance such as that which may be caused by a protoplanet early in its formation.

• OSTI ID: 22667261
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 831; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
AUGER ELECTRON SPECTROSCOPY
COSMIC DUST
DISTURBANCES
PLANETS
PROTOPLANETS
STARS
SUPERNOVAE
TELESCOPES