An Unusual Eclipse of a Pre-Main Sequence Star in IC 348
Abstract
A solar-like pre-main sequence star (TJ 108 = H 187 = LRLL 35 = HMW 15) in the extremely young cluster IC 348 has been found, which apparently experienced an eclipse lasting ~3.5 years, much longer than has ever been detected for any normal eclipsing binary. The light curve is flat-bottomed and rather symmetric, with a depth of 0.66 mag in Cousins I. During eclipse, the system reddened by \~0.17 mag in R-I. We argue that the eclipsing body is not a star because of the small probability of detecting an eclipse in what would be a very widely separated binary. Instead, it appears that the eclipse was caused by a circumstellar or circumbinary cloud or disk feature which occulted the star, or one of its components, if it is a binary system. We emphasize the importance of more detailed study of this object, which appears to be a new member of a small class of pre-main sequence stars whose variability can be firmly linked to occultation by circumstellar (or circumbinary) matter.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0308484,
title = {An Unusual Eclipse of a Pre-Main Sequence Star in IC 348},
author = {R. E. Cohen and W. Herbst and E. C. Williams},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0308484},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
13 pages, 2 figures