J/AJ/146/112 V light curve of RW Aur (Rodriguez+, 2013)
Occultation of the T Tauri star RW Aurigae a by its tidally disrupted disk.
Rodriguez J.E., Pepper J., Stassun K.G., Siverd R.J., Cargile P.,
Beatty T.G., Gaudi B.S.
<Astron. J., 146, 112 (2013)>
=2013AJ....146..112R 2013AJ....146..112R
ADC_Keywords: Stars, pre-main sequence ; Stars, variable ; Photometry, UBV
Keywords: binaries: general - circumstellar matter - protoplanetary disks -
stars: individual: RW Aur - stars: pre-main sequence -
stars: variables: T Tauri, Herbig Ae/Be
Abstract:
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 ∼2mag, 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.
Description:
The Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (KELT-North) is an ongoing
survey, searching for transiting planets around bright stars (V=8-10).
RW Aur is located in KELT-North Field 04, which is centered on
(α=5h54m14.466s, δ=+31°44'37"). KELT-North observed
this field from 2006 October 10 to 2012 September 23, obtaining 8001
images. The KELT-North data are presented in Table1.
Objects:
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RA (ICRS) DE Designation(s)
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05 07 49.57 +30 24 05.2 RW Aurigae = HIP 23873
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File Summary:
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FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
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ReadMe 80 . This file
table1.dat 33 8001 KELT-North photometric observations of RW Auriga
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See also:
B/gcvs : General Catalogue of Variable Stars (Samus+ 2007-2013)
J/ApJS/196/4 : New young star candidates in Taurus-Auriga (Rebull+, 2011)
J/A+A/519/A83 : T Tau stars toward the Taurus-Auriga region (Takita+ 2010)
J/ApJS/147/305 : IUE atlas of pre-main-sequence stars (Valenti+, 2003)
J/ApJ/581/1194 : Taurus-Auriga PMS stars ages and Teff (Palla+, 2002)
J/A+A/376/982 : Near-IR observations of young binaries (Woitas+, 2001)
Byte-by-byte Description of file: table1.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 16 F16.8 d BJD Barcentric Julian Date of observation (TDB)
18- 25 F8.5 mag Vmag Relative KELT instrumental V band magnitude (1)
27- 33 F7.5 mag e_Vmag Poisson error in Vmag
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Note (1): Corrected to Johnson V magnitude.
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History:
From electronic version of the journal
(End) Greg Schwarz [AAS], Sylvain Guehenneux [CDS] 17-Jul-2014