Where Is the Flux Going? The Long-term Photometric Variability of Boyajian’s Star
Abstract
We discuss ~800 days of photometric monitoring of Boyajian's Star (KIC 8462852) from the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN) and ~4000 days of monitoring from the All Sky Automated Survey (ASAS). We show that from 2015 to the present the brightness of Boyajian's Star has steadily decreased at a rate of 6.3 ± 1.4 mmag yr–1, such that the star is now 1.5% fainter than it was in 2015 February. Furthermore, the longer time baseline afforded by ASAS predicts that Boyajian's Star has also undergone two brightening episodes in the past 11 years, rather than only exhibiting a monotonic decline. We review a sample of ~1000 comparison stars of similar brightness located in the same ASAS-SN field and demonstrate that the recent fading is significant at ≳99.4% confidence. The 2015–2017 dimming rate is consistent with that measured with Kepler data for the time period from 2009 to 2013. This long-term variability is difficult to explain with any of the physical models for the star's behavior proposed to date.
- Authors:
-
[1];
[3];
[4];
[4];
- Carnegie Observatories, Pasadena, CA (United States)
- Warsaw Univ. Observatory, Warsaw (Poland)
- Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States)
- The Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH (United States)
- American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO), Cambridge, MA (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Krell Institute, Ames, IA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC); Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; National Science Foundation (NSF)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1542015
- Grant/Contract Number:
- FG02-97ER25308
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- The Astrophysical Journal (Online)
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: The Astrophysical Journal (Online); Journal Volume: 853; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 1538-4357
- Publisher:
- Institute of Physics (IOP)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; stars: activity; stars: individual (Boyajian's Star); stars: peculiar (except chemically peculiar); stars: variables: general
Citation Formats
Simon, Joshua D., Shappee, Benjamin J., Pojmański, G., Montet, Benjamin T., Kochanek, C. S., van Saders, Jennifer, Holoien, T. W. -S., and Henden, Arne A. Where Is the Flux Going? The Long-term Photometric Variability of Boyajian’s Star. United States: N. p., 2018.
Web. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aaa0c1.
Simon, Joshua D., Shappee, Benjamin J., Pojmański, G., Montet, Benjamin T., Kochanek, C. S., van Saders, Jennifer, Holoien, T. W. -S., & Henden, Arne A. Where Is the Flux Going? The Long-term Photometric Variability of Boyajian’s Star. United States. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aaa0c1
Simon, Joshua D., Shappee, Benjamin J., Pojmański, G., Montet, Benjamin T., Kochanek, C. S., van Saders, Jennifer, Holoien, T. W. -S., and Henden, Arne A. Wed .
"Where Is the Flux Going? The Long-term Photometric Variability of Boyajian’s Star". United States. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aaa0c1. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1542015.
@article{osti_1542015,
title = {Where Is the Flux Going? The Long-term Photometric Variability of Boyajian’s Star},
author = {Simon, Joshua D. and Shappee, Benjamin J. and Pojmański, G. and Montet, Benjamin T. and Kochanek, C. S. and van Saders, Jennifer and Holoien, T. W. -S. and Henden, Arne A.},
abstractNote = {We discuss ~800 days of photometric monitoring of Boyajian's Star (KIC 8462852) from the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN) and ~4000 days of monitoring from the All Sky Automated Survey (ASAS). We show that from 2015 to the present the brightness of Boyajian's Star has steadily decreased at a rate of 6.3 ± 1.4 mmag yr–1, such that the star is now 1.5% fainter than it was in 2015 February. Furthermore, the longer time baseline afforded by ASAS predicts that Boyajian's Star has also undergone two brightening episodes in the past 11 years, rather than only exhibiting a monotonic decline. We review a sample of ~1000 comparison stars of similar brightness located in the same ASAS-SN field and demonstrate that the recent fading is significant at ≳99.4% confidence. The 2015–2017 dimming rate is consistent with that measured with Kepler data for the time period from 2009 to 2013. This long-term variability is difficult to explain with any of the physical models for the star's behavior proposed to date.},
doi = {10.3847/1538-4357/aaa0c1},
journal = {The Astrophysical Journal (Online)},
number = 1,
volume = 853,
place = {United States},
year = {2018},
month = {1}
}
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
Other availability
Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal
Cited by: 3 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science
Web of Science
Save to My Library
You must Sign In or Create an Account in order to save documents to your library.
Works referenced in this record:
The SIMBAD astronomical database: The CDS reference database for astronomical objects
journal, April 2000
- Wenger, M.; Ochsenbein, F.; Egret, D.
- Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series, Vol. 143, Issue 1
Astrometry.Net: Blind Astrometric Calibration of Arbitrary Astronomical Images
journal, March 2010
- Lang, Dustin; Hogg, David W.; Mierle, Keir
- The Astronomical Journal, Vol. 139, Issue 5
KIC 8462852 FADED THROUGHOUT THE KEPLER MISSION
journal, October 2016
- Montet, Benjamin T.; Simon, Joshua D.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 830, Issue 2
The man Behind the Curtain: X-Rays Drive the uv Through nir Variability in the 2013 Active Galactic Nucleus Outburst in ngc 2617
journal, May 2014
- Shappee, B. J.; Prieto, J. L.; Grupe, D.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 788, Issue 1
A Statistical Analysis of the Accuracy of the Digitized Magnitudes of Photometric Plates on the Timescale of Decades with an Application to the Century-Long Light Curve of kic 8462852
journal, June 2016
- Hippke, Michael; Angerhausen, Daniel; Lund, Michael B.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 825, Issue 1
Weakened magnetic braking as the origin of anomalously rapid rotation in old field stars
journal, January 2016
- van Saders, Jennifer L.; Ceillier, Tugdual; Metcalfe, Travis S.
- Nature, Vol. 529, Issue 7585
Families of Plausible Solutions to the Puzzle of Boyajian’S star
journal, September 2016
- Wright, Jason T.; Sigurd̵sson, Steinn
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 829, Issue 1
Sonneberg Plate Photometry for Boyajian's Star in Two Passbands
journal, March 2017
- Hippke, Michael; Kroll, Peter; Matthai, Frank
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 837, Issue 1
The Pan-Starrs 1 Photometric Reference Ladder, Release 12.01
journal, April 2013
- Magnier, E. A.; Schlafly, E.; Finkbeiner, D.
- The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, Vol. 205, Issue 2
The unblinking eye on the sky
journal, March 2017
- Bellm, Eric; Kulkarni, Shrinivas
- Nature Astronomy, Vol. 1, Issue 3
Detection of a variable interstellar absorption component towards Orionis A
journal, March 2000
- Price, R. J.; Crawford, I. A.; Barlow, M. J.
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 312, Issue 3
Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)
conference, August 2014
- Ricker, George R.; Winn, Joshua N.; Vanderspek, Roland
- SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, SPIE Proceedings
Fast Star, slow Star; old Star, Young Star: Subgiant Rotation as a Population and Stellar Physics Diagnostic
journal, September 2013
- van Saders, Jennifer L.; Pinsonneault, Marc H.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 776, Issue 2
KEPLER MISSION DESIGN, REALIZED PHOTOMETRIC PERFORMANCE, AND EARLY SCIENCE
journal, March 2010
- Koch, David G.; Borucki, William J.; Basri, Gibor
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 713, Issue 2
Gaia Data Release 1 : Testing parallaxes with local Cepheids and RR Lyrae stars⋆
journal, September 2017
- Clementini, G.; Eyer, L.; Ripepi, V.
- Astronomy & Astrophysics, Vol. 605
Small-scale structure in the interstellar medium: time-varying interstellar absorption towards κ Velorum
journal, December 2012
- Smith, Keith T.; Fossey, Stephen J.; Cordiner, Martin A.
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 429, Issue 2
Long-term Photometric Variability in Kepler Full-frame Images: Magnetic Cycles of Sun–like Stars
journal, December 2017
- Montet, Benjamin T.; Tovar, Guadalupe; Foreman-Mackey, Daniel
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 851, Issue 2
Linear Regression for Astronomical Data with Measurement Errors and Intrinsic Scatter
journal, October 1996
- Akritas, Michael G.; Bershady, Matthew A.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 470
Avalanche Statistics Identify Intrinsic Stellar Processes near Criticality in KIC 8462852
journal, December 2016
- Sheikh, Mohammed A.; Weaver, Richard L.; Dahmen, Karin A.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 117, Issue 26
The All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN) Light Curve Server v1.0
journal, August 2017
- Kochanek, C. S.; Shappee, B. J.; Stanek, K. Z.
- Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Vol. 129, Issue 980
Digital Access to a sky Century at Harvard: Initial Photometry and Astrometry
journal, September 2010
- Laycock, S.; Tang, S.; Grindlay, J.
- The Astronomical Journal, Vol. 140, Issue 4
Kic 8462852 Faded at an Average rate of 0.164 ± 0.013 Magnitudes per Century from 1890 to 1989
journal, May 2016
- Schaefer, Bradley E.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 822, Issue 2
Photometric and Astrometric Vagaries of the Enigma star kic 8462852
journal, December 2016
- Makarov, Valeri V.; Goldin, Alexey
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 833, Issue 1
The Ĝ Search for Extraterrestrial Civilizations with Large Energy Supplies. iv. the Signatures and Information Content of Transiting Megastructures
journal, December 2015
- Wright, Jason T.; Cartier, Kimberly M. S.; Zhao, Ming
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 816, Issue 1
A new interstellar component in the spectrum of HD 72127A
journal, January 1982
- Hobbs, L. M.; Wallerstein, G.; Huu, E. M.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 252
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Technical Summary
journal, September 2000
- York, Donald G.; Adelman, J.; Anderson, Jr., John E.
- The Astronomical Journal, Vol. 120, Issue 3
Identification, Classifications, and Absolute Properties of 773 Eclipsing Binaries Found in the Trans-Atlantic Exoplanet Survey
journal, February 2008
- Devor, Jonathan; Charbonneau, David; O'Donovan, Francis T.
- The Astronomical Journal, Vol. 135, Issue 3
Wide-field optical imaging on ELAIS N1, ELAIS N2, First Look Survey and Lockman Hole: observations and source catalogues: Wide-field optical imaging
journal, August 2011
- González-Solares, E. A.; Irwin, M.; McMahon, R. G.
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 416, Issue 2
Accretion dynamics and disk evolution in NGC 2264: a study based on CoRoT photometric observations
journal, September 2010
- Alencar, S. H. P.; Teixeira, P. S.; Guimarães, M. M.
- Astronomy and Astrophysics, Vol. 519
First Results from the Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey
journal, April 2009
- Drake, A. J.; Djorgovski, S. G.; Mahabal, A.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 696, Issue 1
Magnetic activity of F stars observed by Kepler
journal, February 2014
- Mathur, S.; García, R. A.; Ballot, J.
- Astronomy & Astrophysics, Vol. 562
CSI 2264: SIMULTANEOUS OPTICAL AND INFRARED LIGHT CURVES OF YOUNG DISK-BEARING STARS IN NGC 2264 WITH CoRoT and SPITZER —EVIDENCE FOR MULTIPLE ORIGINS OF VARIABILITY
journal, March 2014
- Cody, Ann Marie; Stauffer, John; Baglin, Annie
- The Astronomical Journal, Vol. 147, Issue 4
IRTF/SPEX OBSERVATIONS OF THE UNUSUAL KEPLER LIGHT CURVE SYSTEM KIC 8462852
journal, December 2015
- Lisse, C. M.; Sitko, M. L.; Marengo, M.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 815, Issue 2
A UBV Photometric Survey of the Kepler Field
journal, April 2012
- Everett, Mark E.; Howell, Steve B.; Kinemuchi, Karen
- Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Vol. 124, Issue 914
KIC 8462852: Will the Trojans return in 2021?
journal, June 2017
- Ballesteros, Fernando J.; Arnalte-Mur, Pablo; Fernandez-Soto, Alberto
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, Vol. 473, Issue 1
Clouds, Streams and Bridges. Redrawing the blueprint of the Magellanic System with Gaia DR1
journal, December 2016
- Belokurov, Vasily; Erkal, Denis; Deason, Alis J.
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Empirical color transformations between SDSS photometry and other photometric systems
journal, September 2006
- Jordi, K.; Grebel, E. K.; Ammon, K.
- Astronomy & Astrophysics, Vol. 460, Issue 1
Ysovar: the First Sensitive, Wide-Area, Mid-Infrared Photometric Monitoring of the Orion Nebula Cluster
journal, May 2011
- Morales-Calderón, M.; Stauffer, J. R.; Hillenbrand, L. A.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 733, Issue 1
Kic 8462852: the Infrared flux
journal, November 2015
- Marengo, Massimo; Hulsebus, Alan; Willis, Sarah
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 814, Issue 1
The Gaia mission
journal, November 2016
- Prusti, T.; de Bruijne, J. H. J.; Brown, A. G. A.
- Astronomy & Astrophysics, Vol. 595
Gaia Data Release 1 : Summary of the astrometric, photometric, and survey properties
journal, November 2016
- Brown, A. G. A.; Vallenari, A.; Prusti, T.
- Astronomy & Astrophysics, Vol. 595
The Clouds are breaking: tracing the Magellanic system with Gaia DR1 Mira variables
journal, February 2017
- Deason, Alis J.; Belokurov, Vasily; Erkal, Denis
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 467, Issue 3
Some Aspects of Measurement Error in Linear Regression of Astronomical Data
journal, August 2007
- Kelly, Brandon C.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 665, Issue 2
Variable interstellar lines in spectra of HD 73882
journal, November 2013
- Galazutdinov, G.; Krełowski, J.; Beletsky, Y.
- Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Vol. 125, Issue 933
Patterns of Photometric and Chromospheric Variation among Sun‐like Stars: A 20 Year Perspective
journal, July 2007
- Lockwood, G. W.; Skiff, B. A.; Henry, Gregory W.
- The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, Vol. 171, Issue 1
Planet Hunters IX. KIC 8462852 – where's the flux?
journal, January 2016
- Boyajian, T. S.; LaCourse, D. M.; Rappaport, S. A.
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 457, Issue 4
Extinction and the Dimming of KIC 8462852
journal, October 2017
- Meng, Huan Y. A.; Rieke, George; Dubois, Franky
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 847, Issue 2
Kic 8462852: Transit of a Large Comet Family
journal, March 2016
- Bodman, Eva H. L.; Quillen, Alice
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 819, Issue 2
Secular dimming of KIC 8462852 following its consumption of a planet
journal, April 2017
- Metzger, Brian D.; Shen, Ken J.; Stone, Nicholas
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 468, Issue 4
Magnetic Evolution and the Disappearance of Sun-Like Activity Cycles
journal, August 2017
- Metcalfe, Travis S.; van Saders, Jennifer
- Solar Physics, Vol. 292, Issue 9
Variable Interstellar Absorption toward the Halo Star HD 219188: Implications for Small-Scale Interstellar Structure
journal, April 2001
- Welty, Daniel E.; Fitzpatrick, Edward L.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 551, Issue 2
An Explanation of the Missing Flux from Boyajian's Mysterious Star
journal, June 2017
- Foukal, Peter
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 842, Issue 1
Constraints on the circumstellar dust around KIC 8462852
journal, February 2016
- Thompson, M. A.; Scicluna, P.; Kemper, F.
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, Vol. 458, Issue 1
INITIAL DATA RELEASE OF THE KEPLER -INT SURVEY
journal, June 2012
- Greiss, S.; Steeghs, D.; Gänsicke, B. T.
- The Astronomical Journal, Vol. 144, Issue 1
Mysterious eclipses in the light curve of KIC8462852: a possible explanation
journal, April 2017
- Neslušan, L.; Budaj, J.
- Astronomy & Astrophysics, Vol. 600
Kic 8462852: Transit of a Large Comet Family
journal, March 2016
- Bodman, Eva H. L.; Quillen, Alice
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 819, Issue 2
First Results from the Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey
journal, April 2009
- Drake, A. J.; Djorgovski, S. G.; Mahabal, A.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 696, Issue 1
A Statistical Analysis of the Accuracy of the Digitized Magnitudes of Photometric Plates on the Timescale of Decades with an Application to the Century-Long Light Curve of kic 8462852
journal, June 2016
- Hippke, Michael; Angerhausen, Daniel; Lund, Michael B.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 825, Issue 1
KEPLER MISSION DESIGN, REALIZED PHOTOMETRIC PERFORMANCE, AND EARLY SCIENCE
journal, March 2010
- Koch, David G.; Borucki, William J.; Basri, Gibor
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 713, Issue 2
IRTF/SPEX OBSERVATIONS OF THE UNUSUAL KEPLER LIGHT CURVE SYSTEM KIC 8462852
journal, December 2015
- Lisse, C. M.; Sitko, M. L.; Marengo, M.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 815, Issue 2
Kic 8462852: the Infrared flux
journal, November 2015
- Marengo, Massimo; Hulsebus, Alan; Willis, Sarah
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 814, Issue 1
KIC 8462852 FADED THROUGHOUT THE KEPLER MISSION
journal, October 2016
- Montet, Benjamin T.; Simon, Joshua D.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 830, Issue 2
Ysovar: the First Sensitive, Wide-Area, Mid-Infrared Photometric Monitoring of the Orion Nebula Cluster
journal, May 2011
- Morales-Calderón, M.; Stauffer, J. R.; Hillenbrand, L. A.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 733, Issue 1
Kic 8462852 Faded at an Average rate of 0.164 ± 0.013 Magnitudes per Century from 1890 to 1989
journal, May 2016
- Schaefer, Bradley E.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 822, Issue 2
The man Behind the Curtain: X-Rays Drive the uv Through nir Variability in the 2013 Active Galactic Nucleus Outburst in ngc 2617
journal, May 2014
- Shappee, B. J.; Prieto, J. L.; Grupe, D.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 788, Issue 1
Avalanche Statistics Identify Intrinsic Stellar Processes near Criticality in KIC 8462852
journal, December 2016
- Sheikh, Mohammed A.; Weaver, Richard L.; Dahmen, Karin A.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 117, Issue 26
Fast Star, slow Star; old Star, Young Star: Subgiant Rotation as a Population and Stellar Physics Diagnostic
journal, September 2013
- van Saders, Jennifer L.; Pinsonneault, Marc H.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 776, Issue 2
The Ĝ Search for Extraterrestrial Civilizations with Large Energy Supplies. iv. the Signatures and Information Content of Transiting Megastructures
journal, December 2015
- Wright, Jason T.; Cartier, Kimberly M. S.; Zhao, Ming
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 816, Issue 1
Families of Plausible Solutions to the Puzzle of Boyajian’S star
journal, September 2016
- Wright, Jason T.; Sigurd̵sson, Steinn
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 829, Issue 1
Planet Hunters IX. KIC 8462852 – where's the flux?
text, January 2016
- Boyajian, T. S.; LaCourse, D. M.; Rappaport, S. A.
- Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Works referencing / citing this record:
Orphaned exomoons: Tidal detachment and evaporation following an exoplanet–star collision
journal, September 2019
- Martinez, Miguel A. S.; Stone, Nicholas C.; Metzger, Brian D.
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 489, Issue 4
The exoplanet handbook: Book Review
journal, March 2012
- Trigo-Rodríguez, Josep M.
- Meteoritics & Planetary Science, Vol. 47, Issue 3