Proper Motion of the Faint Star near KIC 8462852 (Boyajian's Star)—Not a Binary System

Clemens, D. P.; Maheshwari, Kush; Jagani, Roshan; Montgomery, Jordan; El-Batal, A. M.; Ellis, Tyler G.; Wright, Jason T.

doi:10.3847/2041-8213/aab492

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…The discoverers also proposed that the dips observed with Kepler may be due to transits of less massive bodies placed on eccentric orbits by the Lidov-Kozai oscillations due to the outer M-dwarf companion. However, the predicted smooth decline in flux is not in agreement with the brightening episodes [119,120], and the M-dwarf companion turned out not to be associated with Boyajian's star [104]. However, evidence is growing that the dipping phenomenon is due to circumstellar dust.…”

Section: Possible Explanation and Modelsmentioning

confidence: 89%

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Extrasolar enigmas: from disintegrating exoplanets to exoasteroids

Budaj,

Kabath,

Palle

2020

Preprint

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Thousands of transiting exoplanets have been discovered to date, thanks in great part to the Kepler space mission. As in all populations, and certainly in the case of exoplanets, one finds unique objects with distinct characteristics. Here we will describe the properties and behaviour of a small group of 'disintegrating' exoplanets discovered over the last few years (KIC 12557548b, K2-22b, and others). They evaporate, lose mass unraveling their naked cores, produce spectacular dusty comet-like tails, and feature highly variable asymmetric transits. Apart from these exoplanets, there is observational evidence for even smaller 'exo-'objects orbiting other stars: exoasteroids and exocomets. Most probably, such objects are also behind the mystery of Boyajian's star. Ongoing and upcoming space missions such as TESS and PLATO will hopefully discover more objects of this kind, and a new era of the exploration of small extrasolar systems bodies will be upon us.

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Section: Possible Explanation and Modelsmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…The authors also discovered a faint M dwarf companion to the star at 1.95 which is about 3.8 mag fainter in H band. However, this star is not physically bound to Boyajian's star [104] Fig. 13 The Kepler light curve of Boyajian's star shows irregular dips (top).…”

Section: Discovery and The Kepler Light Curvementioning

confidence: 99%

Extrasolar enigmas: from disintegrating exoplanets to exoasteroids

Budaj,

Kabath,

Palle

2020

Preprint

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“…For instance, Boyajian et al (2016) detected an M-dwarf companion star (of assumed mass M o 0.4M ) at an angular distance of 1.96 arcsec from KIC 8462852, corresponding to a physical distance of ≈ 900 AU if the M-dwarf resides at the same distance. Although proper motion observations of the companion indicate that it is actually unbound from KIC 8462852 (Clemens et al 2018), and its positional coincidence is a chance superposition, this conclusion is called into question by recent Gaia position measurements (D. Clemens, private communication).…”

Section: Kozai-lidov Oscillationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Orphaned exomoons: Tidal detachment and evaporation following an exoplanet–star collision

Martinez

Stone

Metzger

2019

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Gravitational perturbations on an exoplanet from a massive outer body, such as the Kozai-Lidov mechanism, can pump the exoplanet's eccentricity up to values that will destroy it via a collision or strong interaction with its parent star. During the final stages of this process, any exomoons orbiting the exoplanet will be detached by the star's tidal force and placed into orbit around the star. Using ensembles of three and four-body simulations, we demonstrate that while most of these detached bodies either collide with their star or are ejected from the system, a substantial fraction, ∼ 10%, of such "orphaned" exomoons (with initial properties similar to those of the Galilean satellites in our own solar system) will outlive their parent exoplanet. The detached exomoons generally orbit inside the ice line, so that strong radiative heating will evaporate any volatile-rich layers, producing a strong outgassing of gas and dust, analogous to a comet's perihelion passage. Small dust grains ejected from the exomoon may help generate an opaque cloud surrounding the orbiting body but are quickly removed by radiation blow-out. By contrast, larger solid particles inherit the orbital properties of the parent exomoon, feeding an eccentric disk of solids that drains more gradually onto the star via Poynting-Robertson drag, and which could result in longer-timescale dimming of the star. For characteristic exomoon evaporation times of ∼ 10 5 − 10 6 yr, attenuation of the stellar light arising from one or more out-gassing exomoons provides a promising explanation for both the dipping and secular dimming behavior observed from KIC 8462852 (Boyajian's Star).

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“…If it were a bound companion however, it might affect other bound objects via long-term perturbations, and could trigger a barrage of occulting objects inward towards the host star. Clemens et al 2018 observed the system with the Mimir near-infrared wide-field imager on the 1.8-m Perkins telescope in 2017, and compared the relative astrometry of the candidate companion to the 2014 Keck/NIRC2 observations reported in B16. They reported a tangential speed of 44.9±4.9 km s −1 for the candidate companion relative to KIC 8462852, and concluded it is not a bound companion.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Boyajian’s Star B: The Co-moving Companion to KIC 8462852 A

Pearce

Kraus

Dupuy

et al. 2021

ApJ

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The light curve of KIC 8462852, aka Boyajian’s Star, undergoes deep dips the origin of which remains unclear. A faint star ≈2″ to the east was discovered in Keck/NIRC2 imaging in Boyajian et al., but its status as a binary, and possible contribution to the observed variability, was unclear. Here, we use three epochs of Keck/NIRC2 imaging, spanning 5 yr, in JHK near-infrared bands to obtain 1 mas precision astrometry. We show that the two objects exhibit common proper motion, measure a relative velocity of μ = 0.14 ± 0.44 mas yr−1 (μ = 0.30 ± 0.93 km s−1) and conclude that they are a binary pair at 880 ± 10 au projected separation. There is marginal detection of possible orbital motion, but our astrometry is insufficient to characterize the orbit. We show that two other point sources are not associated with KIC 8462852. We recommend that attempts to model KIC 8462852 A’s light curve should revisit the possibility that the bound stellar companion may play a role in causing the irregular brightness variations, for example, through disruption of the orbits of bodies around the primary due to long-term orbital evolution of the binary orbit.

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Proper Motion of the Faint Star near KIC 8462852 (Boyajian's Star)—Not a Binary System

Cited by 6 publications

References 21 publications

Extrasolar enigmas: from disintegrating exoplanets to exoasteroids

Extrasolar enigmas: from disintegrating exoplanets to exoasteroids

Orphaned exomoons: Tidal detachment and evaporation following an exoplanet–star collision

Boyajian’s Star B: The Co-moving Companion to KIC 8462852 A

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