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The extraordinary far-infrared variation of a protostar: Herschel/PACS observations of LRLL54361
- Publication Year :
- 2014
-
Abstract
- We report Herschel/PACS photometric observations at 70 {\mu}m and 160 {\mu}m of LRLL54361 - a suspected binary protostar that exhibits periodic (P=25.34 days) flux variations at shorter wavelengths (3.6 {\mu}m and 4.5 {\mu}m) thought to be due to pulsed accretion caused by binary motion. The PACS observations show unprecedented flux variation at these far-infrared wavelengths that are well cor- related with the variations at shorter wavelengths. At 70 {\mu}m the object increases its flux by a factor of six while at 160{\mu}m the change is about a factor of two, consistent with the wavelength dependence seen in the far-infrared spectra. The source is marginally resolved at 70 {\mu}m with varying FWHM. Deconvolved images of the sources show elongations exactly matching the outflow cavities traced by the scattered light observations. The spatial variations are anti-correlated with the flux variation indicating that a light echo is responsible for the changes in FWHM. The observed far-infrared flux variability indicates that the disk and en- velope of this source is periodically heated by the accretion pulses of the central source, and suggests that such long wavelength variability in general may provide a reasonable proxy for accretion variations in protostars.<br />Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures accepted for publication in ApJ Letters
- Subjects :
- Physics
Spectrometer
FOS: Physical sciences
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
Photometry (optics)
Stars
Wavelength
Far infrared
Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Space and Planetary Science
Light echo
Binary star
Protostar
Astrophysics::Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Astrophysics::Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)
Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....7ee2912dbf3f70406803468ebd9c5801