The transiting dust clumps in the evolved disc of the Sun-like UXor RZ Psc

Kennedy, Grant M.; Kenworthy, Matthew A.; Pepper, Joshua; Rodriguez, Joseph E.; Siverd, Robert J.; Stassun, Keivan G.; Wyatt, M. C.

doi:10.1098/rsos.160652

Cited by 34 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 83 publications

(183 reference statements)

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“…However, the eclipses recur over much longer timescales, and most of the time the star is close to its upper brightness level. The variability is explained as the result of an asteroidal ring (Kennedy et al 2017) oriented in the line of sight. This is similar to our interpretation for the Ori stars, except that we argue for a vertically extended ring in addition to the flat disk (see Sect.…”

Section: Comparison With Related Starsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Clumpy dust rings around non-accreting young stars

Scholz

Natta

Bozhinova

et al. 2019

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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We investigate four young, but non-accreting, very low mass stars in Orion, which show irregular eclipses by circumstellar dust. The eclipses are not recurring periodically, are variable in depth, lack a flat bottom, and their duration is comparable to the typical timescale between eclipses. The dimming is associated with reddening consistent with dust extinction. Taken together this implies the presence of rings around these four stars, with radii ranging from 0.01 to 40 AU, comprised of optically thin dust clouds. The stars also show IR excess indicating the presence of evolved circumstellar disks, with orders of magnitude more material than needed for the eclipses. However, the rings need to cover an opening angle of about 20 degrees to explain how common these variable stars are in the coeval population in the same region, which is more extended than a typical disk. Thus, we propose that the rings may not be part of the disks, but instead separate structures with larger scale heights. To be sustained over years, the rings need to be replenished by dust from the disk or gravitationally bound to an object (e.g., planets or planetesimals). These four stars belong to a growing and diverse class of post-T Tauri stars with dips or eclipses in their lightcurves. Dusty rings with scale heights exceeding those of disks may be a common phenomenon at stellar ages between 5 and 10 Myr, in the transition from accretion disks to debris disks. These structures could be caused by migrating planets and may be signposts for the presence of young planetary systems.

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Section: Comparison With Related Starsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Clumpy dust rings around non-accreting young stars

Scholz

Natta

Bozhinova

et al. 2019

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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“…This system is also seen to host a bright mid-infrared (IR) excess, inferred to be thermal emission from a warm circumstellar dust population (de Wit et al 2013). There is no far-IR excess, which rules out a bright outer disc, but the outer radius could nevertheless be several tens of au (Kennedy et al 2017). While neither of these properties are unusual for an UXor, what marks RZ Psc as unusual is that its probable age is a few tens of Myr, older than other UXors, and Herbig Ae/Be stars in general (which have ages 10 Myr, Grinin et al 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…dust thermal emission, outer disc imaging) may yield broader insights into disc vertical structure and geometry (e.g. Kennedy et al 2017;Ansdell et al 2016aAnsdell et al , 2020. Similarly, clumpy and/or misaligned inner discs can cast shadows on outer disc regions (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This picture was reconsidered by Kennedy et al (2017), based primarily on a simple optical depth argument. The large fractional dust luminosity (L disc /L ≈ 0.07) implies that 7 % of the starlight is captured and re-emitted thermally by the dust.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…dust around the star. Kennedy et al (2017) therefore concluded that the dimming events are the result of occultations by dust structures that rise above an optically thick disc mid-plane, highlighting the alternative possibility that RZ Psc hosts a relatively old and evolved protoplanetary disc (a related scenario is that material is falling towards the star, so appears above the mid-plane in projection, e.g. Grady et al 1996).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A low-mass stellar companion to the young variable star RZ Psc

Kennedy

Ginski

Kenworthy

et al. 2020

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters

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RZ Psc is a young Sun-like star with a bright and warm infrared excess that is occasionally dimmed significantly by circumstellar dust structures. Optical depth arguments suggest that the dimming events do not probe a typical sightline through the circumstellar dust, and are instead caused by structures that appear above an optically thick mid-plane. This system may therefore be similar to systems where an outer disc is shadowed by material closer to the star. Here, we report the discovery that RZ Psc hosts a $0.12\, \mathrm{ M}_\odot$ companion at a projected separation of 23 au. We conclude that the disc must orbit the primary star. While we do not detect orbital motion, comparison of the angle of linear polarization of the primary with the companion’s on-sky position angle provides circumstantial evidence that the companion and disc may not share the same orbital plane. Whether the companion severely disrupts the disc, truncates it, or has little effect at all will require further observations of both the companion and disc.

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KELT: The Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope, a Survey for Exoplanets Transiting Bright, Hot Stars

Pepper¹,

Stassun²,

Gaudi³

2018

Handbook of Exoplanets

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The KELT project was originally designed as a small-aperture, wide-field photometric survey that would be optimally sensitive to planets transiting bright (V~8-10) stars. This magnitude range corresponded to the gap between the faint magnitude limit where radial velocity surveys were complete, and the bright magnitude limit for transiting planet hosts routinely found by dedicated ground-based transit surveys. Malmquist bias and other factors have also led the KELT survey to focus on discovering planets transiting relatively hot host stars as well. To date, the survey has discovered 22 transiting hot Jupiters, including some of the brightest transiting planet host stars known to date. Over half of these planets transit rapidly-rotating stars with Teff > 6250 K, which had been largely eschewed by both radial velocity and transit surveys, due to the challenge of obtaining precision radial velocities for such stars. The KELT survey has developed a protocol and specialized software for confirming transiting planets around stars rotating as rapidly as ~200 km/s. This chapter reviews KELT planet discoveries, describes their scientific value, and also briefly discusses the non-exoplanet science produced by the KELT project, especially long-timescale phenomena and preparations for the TESS mission.

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The transiting dust clumps in the evolved disc of the Sun-like UXor RZ Psc

Cited by 34 publications

References 83 publications

Clumpy dust rings around non-accreting young stars

Clumpy dust rings around non-accreting young stars

A low-mass stellar companion to the young variable star RZ Psc

KELT: The Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope, a Survey for Exoplanets Transiting Bright, Hot Stars

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