Year: 2022
Type: article
Abstract: The Gaia Alert System issued an alert on 2020 August 28, on Gaia 20eae when its light curve showed a ∼4.25 magnitude outburst. We present multiwavelength photometric and spectroscopic follow-up observations of this source since 2020 August and identify it as the newest member of the FUor/EXor family of sources. We find that the present brightening of Gaia 20eae is not due to the dust-clearing event but due to an intrinsic change in the spectral energy distribution. The light curve of Gaia 20eae shows a transition stage during which most of its brightness (∼3.4 mag) has occurred on a short timescale of 34 days with a rise rate of 3 mag/month. Gaia 20eae has now started to decay at a rate of 0.3 mag/month. We have detected a strong P Cygni profile in Hα, which indicates the presence of winds originating from regions close to the accretion. We find signatures of very strong and turbulent outflow and accretion in Gaia 20eae during this outburst phase. We have also detected a redshifted absorption component in all of the Ca ii IR triplet lines consistent with a signature of hot infalling gas in the magnetospheric accretion funnel. This enables us to constrain the viewing angle with respect to the accretion funnel. Our investigation of Gaia 20eae points toward magnetospheric accretion being the phenomenon for the current outburst.
Source: The Astrophysical Journal
Authors: Arpan Ghosh, Saurabh Sharma, Joe P. Ninan, Devendra K. Ojha, Bhuwan C. Bhatt, Shubham Kanodia, Suvrath Mahadevan, Gudmundur Stefansson, R. K. Yadav, A. S. Gour, Rakesh Pandey, Tirthendu Sinha, Neelam Panwar, John P. Wisniewski, Caleb I. Cañas, Andrea S. J. Lin, Arpita Roy, Fred Hearty, Lawrence Ramsey, Paul Robertson, Christian Schwab
Institutions: Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences, Pandit Ravishankar Shukla University, Pennsylvania State University, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Princeton University, National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand, Kumaun University, University of Oklahoma, Space Telescope Science Institute, Johns Hopkins University, University of California, Irvine, Macquarie University
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $4,499
Funders: National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium, European Space Agency, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology, India, Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, NASA Headquarters, Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology
Awards: G1049003178, Collaborative Research: Turnkey Laser Frequency Comb for the Calibrator for the Habitable Zone Planet Finder, MRI: Development of the Habitable Zone Planet Finder Spectrograph for the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, G276396668, G2962733550, Collaborative Research: Understanding exoplanets orbiting fully convective stars with the Habitable-zone Planet Finder, Steps Towards Achieving Precision Radial Velocities in the NIR: Developing and Testing Techniques with a 1.75um cutoff H2RG array for a Pathfinder Instrument, Collaborative Research: Turnkey Laser Frequency Comb Calibrator for the Habiable Zone Planet Finder, Collaborative Research: An Agile Electro-Optic Frequency Comb for Precision Near-Infrared Radial Velocity Spectroscopy with the Habitable Zone Planet Finder, Collaborative Research: An Agile Electro-Optic Frequency Comb for Precision Near-Infrared Radial Velocity Spectroscopy with the Habitable Zone Planet Finder, G680876163, THE TRANSITING EXOPLANET SURVEY SATELLITE (TESS) SET TO LAUNCH IN MARCH WILL PERFORM A TWO-YEAR ALL-SKY SURVEY WITH THE PRIMARY GOAL OF DETECTING SMALL NEPTUNE AND EARTH-LIKE ANALOGUES AROUND BRIGHT NEARBY STARS. THE RESULTING SET OF EXTRASOLAR PLANETS WILL SERVE AS TARGETS FOR NASAS JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE (JWST) TO OBSERVE AND CHARACTERIZE THEIR ATMOSPHERES. THIS PROPOSAL WILL CREATE A LARGE GROUND-BASED HIGH-PRECISION SPECTROSCOPIC FOLLOW-UP PROGRAM TO ROBUSTLY VET TESS OBJECTS OF INTEREST (TOIS). TOIS ARE SYSTEMS WHICH SHOW A TRANSIT AND MAY BE GENUINE EXOPLANETS. WHILE THE TESS TEAM AND THE ASTROPHYSICAL COMMUNITY HAVE DEVELOPED SOME IDEAS FOR VETTING THIS PROPOSAL GREATLY COMPLEMENTS THE EXISTING TOOLS BY BRINGING IN NEW OBSERVATIONAL INSTRUMENTS ADEPT FOR CLASSIFYING AND DYNAMICALLY CHARACTERIZING TOIS. THIS PROPOSAL WILL USE THE APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY GALAXY EVOLUTION EXPERIMENT (APOGEE) SPECTROGRAPH ON THE SLOAN FOUNDATION 2.5-METER TELESCOPE THE HABITABLE ZONE PLANET FINDER (HPF) ON THE HOBBY-EBERLY TELESCOPE AND THE NASA/NSF SPONSORED NNEXPLORE EXOPLANET INVESTIGATIONS WITH DOPPLER SPECTROSCOPY (NEID) SPECTROGRAPH ON THE WIYN TELESCOPE. APOGEE IS CAPABLE OF OBSERVING 300 STARS SIMULTANEOUSLY AT A PRECISION NECESSARY TO CONFIRM IF A TOI IS AN EXOPLANET OR AN ASTROPHYSICAL FALSE POSITIVE. IT HAS CURRENTLY OBSERVED OVER 70 000 TESS STARS MOST WITH MULTIPLE OBSERVATIONS. HPF AND NEID CAN ONLY OBSERVE ONE TARGET BUT AT THE PRECISION NECESSARY TO DERIVE PRECISE EXOPLANETS MASSES. APOGEE DATA WILL CULL A LARGE NUMBER OF TOIS TO DEFINE A SUBSET OF TESS STARS HOSTING TRUE PLANETS IN NEED OF FURTHER CHARACTERIZATION BY HPF AND NEID. THE END PRODUCT IS A SUBSET OF TOIS WITH PRECISE DYNAMICAL MASSES AND RADII THAT CAN BE OBSERVED BY JWST. THIS PROPOSAL IS DIRECTLY ALIGNED WITH THE THEME OF EXOPLANET EXPLORATION WITHIN THE SOLICITATION AND THE BROADER GOALS OF NASA TO DISCOVER AND STUDY PLANETS AROUND OTHER STARS AND EXPLORE WHETHER THEY COULD HARBOR LIFE. THERE IS A DIRECT APPLICATION TO THE SUCCESS OF TESS AND JWST TWO CURRENT NASA MISSIONS BY PROVIDING A SET OF VERIFIED EXOPLANETS WITH PRECISE MASSES AND RADII. FUTURE PROGRAMS SUCH AS THE PROPOSED MISSIONS CONTRIBUTION TO THE ATMOSPHERIC REMOTE-SENSING EXOPLANET LARGE-SURVEY SPECTROSCOPY OF EXOPLANETS (CASE) OR FAST INFRARED EXOPLANET SPECTROSCOPY SURVEY EXPLORER (FINESSE) WHICH ARE DESIGNED TO EXPLORE THE ATMOSPHERE OF CONFIRMED EXOPLANETS WILL ALSO BENEFIT FROM THE RESULTS FROM THIS PROPOSAL BY CONSERVING LIMITED OBSERVATION TIME FOR THE HIGHEST PRIORITY PLANETS
OpenAlex ID: W4200634879