Get started
Work

The Moth: An Unusual Circumstellar Structure Associated with HD 61005

Year: 2007
Type: article
Abstract: We present the discovery of an unusual spatially resolved circumstellar structure associated with the ≈90 Myr, nearby, G dwarf star HD 61005. Observations from the FEPS Spitzer Legacy Science survey reveal thermal emission in excess of expected stellar photospheric levels. Follow-up 0.1'' resolution HST NICMOS coronagraphic images reveal scattered starlight ≤7'' (~240 AU) from the occulted star (1.1 μm flux density =18 ± 3.3 mJy; and 0.77% ± 0.16% of the starlight). The extremely high near-IR scattering fraction and IR excess luminosity f = L IR / L * ≈ 2 × 10 −3 suggests scattering particle sizes of order a ≲ 1.1 μm/2π ∼ 0.2 μm , comparable to the blowout size ( a ≈ 0.3 μm) due to radiation pressure from the star. Dust-scattered starlight is traced inward to an instrumental limit of ~10 AU. The structure exhibits a strong asymmetry about its morphological major axis but is mirror-symmetric about its minor axis.
DOI: 10.1086/525016
Authors: Dean C. Hines, Glenn Schneider, David Hollenbach, Eric E. Mamajek, Lynne A. Hillenbrand, Stanimir A. Metchev, Michael R. Meyer, John M. Carpenter, Amaya Moro-Martín, Murray D. Silverstone, Jinyoung Serena Kim, Thomas Henning, Jeroen Bouwman, Sebastian Wolf
Institutions: Space Science Institute, University of Arizona, Ames Research Center, Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian, California Institute of Technology, University of California, Los Angeles, Princeton University, Eureka Scientific, Max Planck Institute for Astronomy
Language: English
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2017731090
FWCI: 2.038
Cites: 37
Cited by: 86
Related to: 10