Resolved Young Binary Systems and Their Disks Akeson, Rachel L.; Jensen, Eric L. N.; Carpenter, John ...
The Astrophysical journal,
02/2019, Letnik:
872, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
We have conducted a survey of young single and multiple systems in the Taurus-Auriga star-forming region with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), substantially improving both the spatial ...resolution and sensitivity with which individual protoplanetary disks in these systems have been observed. These ALMA observations can resolve binary separations as small as 25-30 au and have an average 3 detection level of 0.35 mJy, equivalent to a disk mass of 4 × 10−5 M for an M3 star. Our sample was constructed from stars that have an infrared excess and/or signs of accretion and have been classified as Class II. For the binary and higher-order multiple systems observed, we detect λ = 1.3 mm continuum emission from one or more stars in all of our target systems. Combined with previous surveys of Taurus, our 21 new detections increase the fraction of millimeter-detected disks to over 75% in all categories of stars (singles, primaries, and companions) earlier than spectral type M6 in the Class II sample. Given the wealth of other information available for these stars, this has allowed us to study the impact of multiplicity with a much larger sample. While millimeter flux and disk mass are related to stellar mass as seen in previous studies, we find that both primary and secondary stars in binary systems with separations of 30-4200 au have lower values of millimeter flux as a function of stellar mass than single stars. We also find that for these systems, the circumstellar disk around the primary star does not dominate the total disk mass in the system and contains on average 62% of the total mass.
ABSTRACT The recent detections of two transit events attributed to the super-Earth candidate K2-18b have provided the unprecedented prospect of spectroscopically studying a habitable-zone planet ...outside the solar system. Orbiting a nearby M2.5 dwarf and receiving virtually the same stellar insolation as Earth, K2-18b would be a prime candidate for the first detailed atmospheric characterization of a habitable-zone exoplanet using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST)and James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Here, we report the detection of a third transit of K2-18b near the predicted transit time using the Spitzer Space Telescope. The Spitzer detection demonstrates the periodic nature of the two transit events discovered by K2, confirming that K2-18 is indeed orbited by a super-Earth in a 33 day orbit, ruling out the alternative scenario of two similarly sized, long-period planets transiting only once within the 75 day Kepler Space Telescope (K2) observation. We also find, however, that the transit event detected by Spitzer occurred 1.85 hr ( 7 ) before the predicted transit time. Our joint analysis of the Spitzer and K2 photometry reveals that this early occurrence of the transit is not caused by transit timing variations, but the result of an inaccurate ephemeris due to a previously undetected data anomaly in the K2 photometry. We refit the ephemeris and find that K2-18b would have been lost for future atmospheric characterizations with HST and JWST if we had not secured its ephemeris shortly after the discovery. We caution that immediate follow-up observations as presented here will also be critical for confirming and securing future planets discovered by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), in particular if only two transit events are covered by the relatively short 27-day TESS campaigns.
We present new results on how the presence of stellar companions affects disk evolution based on a study of the 5-11 Myr old Upper Scorpius OB Association. Of the 50 G0-M3 Upper Sco members with ...disks in our sample, only seven host a stellar companion within 2″ and brighter than K = 15, compared to 35 of 75 members without disks. This matches a trend seen in the 1-2 Myr old Taurus region, where systems with a stellar companion within 40 au have a lower fraction of infrared-identified disks than those without such companions, indicating shorter disk lifetimes in close multiple systems. However, the fractions of disk systems with a stellar companion within 40 au match in Upper Sco and Taurus. Additionally, we see no difference in the millimeter brightnesses of disks in Upper Sco systems with and without companions, in contrast to Taurus where systems with a companion within 300 au are significantly fainter than wider and single systems. These results suggest that the effects of stellar companions on disk lifetimes occur within the first 1-2 Myr of disk evolution, after which companions play little further role. By contrast, disks around single stars lose the millimeter-sized dust grains in their outer regions between ages of 1-2 Myr and 5-11 Myr. The end result of small dust disk sizes and faint millimeter luminosities is the same whether the disk has been truncated by a companion or has evolved through internal processes.
Abstract
The ∼200,000 targets monitored for photometric variability during the Kepler prime mission include the best-studied group of stars in the sky, due both to the extensive time history provided ...by Kepler and to the substantial amount of ancillary data provided by other investigators or compiled by the Kepler team. To complement this wealth of data, we surveyed the entire Kepler field using the 3.6 and 4.5
μ
m bands of the Warm Spitzer Space Telescope, obtaining photometry in both bands for almost 170,000 objects. We demonstrate relative photometric precision ranging from better than ∼1.5% for the brighter stars down to slightly greater than ∼2% for the faintest stars monitored by Kepler. We describe the data collection and analysis phases of this work and identify several stars with large infrared excess, although none that is also known to be the host of an exoplanetary system. The final catalog resulting from this work will be available at the NASA Exoplanet Archive.
Pulsed Accretion in the T Tauri Binary TWA 3A Tofflemire, Benjamin M.; Mathieu, Robert D.; Herczeg, Gregory J. ...
Astrophysical journal. Letters,
06/2017, Letnik:
842, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
TWA 3A is the most recent addition to a small group of young binary systems that both actively accrete from a circumbinary disk and have spectroscopic orbital solutions. As such, it provides a unique ...opportunity to test binary accretion theory in a well-constrained setting. To examine TWA 3A's time-variable accretion behavior, we have conducted a two-year, optical photometric monitoring campaign, obtaining dense orbital phase coverage (∼20 observations per orbit) for ∼15 orbital periods. From U-band measurements we derive the time-dependent binary mass accretion rate, finding bursts of accretion near each periastron passage. On average, these enhanced accretion events evolve over orbital phases 0.85 to 1.05, reaching their peak at periastron. The specific accretion rate increases above the quiescent value by a factor of ∼4 on average but the peak can be as high as an order of magnitude in a given orbit. The phase dependence and amplitude of TWA 3A accretion is in good agreement with numerical simulations of binary accretion with similar orbital parameters. In these simulations, periastron accretion bursts are fueled by periodic streams of material from the circumbinary disk that are driven by the binary orbit. We find that TWA 3A's average accretion behavior is remarkably similar to DQ Tau, another T Tauri binary with similar orbital parameters, but with significantly less variability from orbit to orbit. This is only the second clear case of orbital-phase-dependent accretion in a T Tauri binary.
ABSTRACT The theory of binary star formation predicts that close binaries (a < 100 au) will experience periodic pulsed accretion events as streams of material form at the inner edge of a circumbinary ...disk (CBD), cross a dynamically cleared gap, and feed circumstellar disks or accrete directly onto the stars. The archetype for the pulsed accretion theory is the eccentric, short-period, classical T Tauri binary DQ Tau. Low-cadence (∼daily) broadband photometry has shown brightening events near most periastron passages, just as numerical simulations would predict for an eccentric binary. Magnetic reconnection events (flares) during the collision of stellar magnetospheres near periastron could, however, produce the same periodic, broadband behavior when observed at a one-day cadence. To reveal the dominant physical mechanism seen in DQ Tau's low-cadence observations, we have obtained continuous, moderate-cadence, multiband photometry over 10 orbital periods, supplemented with 27 nights of minute-cadence photometry centered on four separate periastron passages. While both accretion and stellar flares are present, the dominant timescale and morphology of brightening events are characteristic of accretion. On average, the mass accretion rate increases by a factor of five near periastron, in good agreement with recent models. Large variability is observed in the morphology and amplitude of accretion events from orbit to orbit. We argue that this is due to the absence of stable circumstellar disks around each star, compounded by inhomogeneities at the inner edge of the CBD and within the accretion streams themselves. Quasiperiodic apastron accretion events are also observed, which are not predicted by binary accretion theory.
Abstract
We present an overview of best practices for publishing data in astronomy and astrophysics journals. These recommendations are intended as a reference for authors to help prepare and publish ...data in a way that will better represent and support science results, enable better data sharing, improve reproducibility, and enhance the reusability of data. Observance of these guidelines will also help to streamline the extraction, preservation, integration and cross-linking of valuable data from astrophysics literature into major astronomical databases, and consequently facilitate new modes of science discovery that will better exploit the vast quantities of panchromatic and multidimensional data associated with the literature. We encourage authors, journal editors, referees, and publishers to implement the best practices reviewed here, as well as related recommendations from international astronomical organizations such as the International Astronomical Union for publication of nomenclature, data, and metadata. A convenient Checklist of Recommendations for Publishing Data in the Literature (Appendix A) is included for authors to consult before the submission of the final version of their journal articles and associated data files. We recommend that publishers of journals in astronomy and astrophysics incorporate a link to this document in their Instructions to Authors.
We report observations of a possible young transiting planet orbiting a previously known weak-lined T-Tauri star in the 7-10 Myr old Orion-OB1a/25-Ori region. The candidate was found as part of the ...Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) Orion project. It has a photometric transit period of 0.448413 + or - 0.000040 days, and appears in both 2009 and 2010 PTF data. Follow-up low-precision radial velocity (RV) observations and adaptive optics imaging suggest that the star is not an eclipsing binary, and that it is unlikely that a background source is blended with the target and mimicking the observed transit. RV observations with the Hobby-Eberly and Keck telescopes yield an RV that has the same period as the photometric event, but is offset in phase from the transit center by approx = - 0.22 periods. The amplitude (half range) of the RV variations is 2.4 km s super(-1) and is comparable with the expected RV amplitude that stellar spots could induce. The RV curve is likely dominated by stellar spot modulation and provides an upper limit to the projected companion mass of M sub(p) sin i sub(orb) <, ~4.8 + or - 1.2 M sub(Jup); when combined with the orbital inclination, i sub(orb), of the candidate planet from modeling of the transit light curve, we find an upper limit on the mass of the planetary candidate of M sub(p) <, ~5.5 + or - 1.4 M sub(Jup). This limit implies that the planet is orbiting close to, if not inside, its Roche limiting orbital radius, so that it may be undergoing active mass loss and evaporation.
Abstract
K2-55b is a Neptune-sized planet orbiting a K7 dwarf with a radius of
, a mass of 0.688 ± 0.069
, and an effective temperature of
K. Having characterized the host star using near-infrared ...spectra obtained at IRTF/SpeX, we observed a transit of K2-55b with
Spitzer/
Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) and confirmed the accuracy of the original
K2
ephemeris for future follow-up transit observations. Performing a joint fit to the
Spitzer/IRAC
and
K2
photometry, we found a planet radius of
, an orbital period of
days, and an equilibrium temperature of roughly 900 K. We then measured the planet mass by acquiring 12 radial velocity (RV) measurements of the system using the High Resolution Echelle Spectrometer on the 10 m Keck I Telescope. Our RV data set precisely constrains the mass of K2-55b to
, indicating that K2-55b has a bulk density of
g cm
−3
and can be modeled as a rocky planet capped by a modest H/He envelope (
M
envelope
= 12 ± 3%
M
p
). K2-55b is denser than most similarly sized planets, raising the question of whether the high planetary bulk density of K2-55b could be attributed to the high metallicity of K2-55. The absence of a substantial volatile envelope despite the high mass of K2-55b poses a challenge to current theories of gas giant formation. We posit that K2-55b may have escaped runaway accretion by migration, late formation, or inefficient core accretion, or that K2-55b was stripped of its envelope by a late giant impact.
We report on Keck Interferometer observations of the double-lined binary (B) component of the quadruple pre-main-sequence (PMS) system HD 98800. With these interferometric observations, combined with ...astrometric measurements made by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Fine Guidance Sensors (FGS) and published radial velocity observations, we have estimated preliminary visual and physical orbits of the HD 98800 B subsystem. Our orbit model calls for an inclination of 66.8 c 3.2 and allows us to infer the masses and luminosities of the individual components. In particular we find component masses of 0.699 c 0.064 and 0.582 c 0.051 M sub( )for the Ba (primary) and Bb (secondary) components, respectively. Spectral energy distribution (SED) modeling of the B subsystem suggests that the B circumstellar material is a source of extinction along the line of sight to the B components. This seems to corroborate a conjecture by Tokovinin that the B subsystem is viewed through circumbinary material, but it raises important questions about the morphology of that circumbinary material. Our modeling of the subsystem component SEDs finds temperatures and luminosities in agreement with previous studies, and coupled with the component mass estimates allows for comparison with PMS models in the low-mass regime with few empirical constraints. Solar abundance models seem to underpredict the inferred component temperatures and luminosities, while assuming slightly subsolar abundances brings the models and observations into better agreement. The current preliminary orbit does not yet place significant constraints on existing PMS stellar models, but prospects for additional observations improving the orbit model and component parameters are very good.
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