English

The eruptive young star IRAS 21204+4913

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics 2026-03-12 v2

Abstract

The results of photometric, polarimetric, and spectroscopic observations are presented for the young star IRAS 21204+4913, whose visible brightness has increased by 5m\approx 5^{\rm m} since October 2025. The star's absorption spectrum in the 0.360.75μ0.36 - 0.75 \mum range resembles those of A - F giants and supergiants, but it also exhibits molecular TiO bands. The brightening was accompanied by a significant increase in the degree of polarization of the stellar radiation (to 16%\approx 16 \% in the I-band), likely due to scattering by dust in an expanding circumstellar shell. The P Cygni profile of the Hα\alpha line implies a dusty wind velocity of 300\approx 300 km/s. We believe that the outburst of IRAS 21204+4913 is caused by an increase in the accretion rate of protoplanetary disk's matter onto the young star with a mass of 0.5\lesssim 0.5 M_\odot to 3×105\gtrsim 3\times 10^{-5} M_\odot yr1^{-1}. Furthermore, IRAS 21204+4913 displays several unusual features: the dependence of the width and radial velocity of absorption lines on the excitation potential, emission in the TiO molecular bands, and a comparably bright outburst that occured in 1948. Several T Tauri stars and a group of Herbig-Haro objects are found in the vicinity of the star.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2602.15157,
  title  = {The eruptive young star IRAS 21204+4913},
  author = {M. A. Burlak and A. V. Dodin and A. V. Zharova and S. G. Zheltoukhov and N. P. Ikonnikova and S. A. Lamzin and B. S. Safonov and I. A. Strakhov and A. A. Tatarnikov and A. M. Tatarnikov},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.15157},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

17 pages, 12 figures. The recent photometry has been added in comparison with v1. Accepted by Astronomy Letters