The Orbit and Occultations of KH 15D
Abstract
The unusual flux variations of the pre-main-sequence binary star KH 15D have been attributed to occultations by a circumbinary disk. We test whether or not this theory is compatible with newly available data, including recent radial velocity measurements, CCD photometry over the past decade, and photographic photometry over the past 50 years. We find the model to be successful, after two refinements: a more realistic motion of the occulting feature and a halo around each star that probably represents scattering by the disk. The occulting feature is exceptionally sharp edged, raising the possibility that the dust in the disk has settled into a thin layer and providing a tool for fine-scale mapping of the immediate environment of a T Tauri star. However, the window of opportunity is closing, as the currently visible star may be hidden at all orbital phases by as early as 2008.
Additional Information
© 2006 American Astronomical Society. Received 2005 December 30; accepted 2006 February 15. We are grateful to V. Grinin and O. Yu. Barsunova for providing their optical data, and to M. Tamura for providing his group's near-infrared data. We thank J. Barranco, E. Ford, S. Gaudi, S. Kenyon, R. Narayan, and G. Rybicki for helpful discussions. S. Gaudi, V. Grinin, and the anonymous referee provided constructive criticism of the manuscript.Attached Files
Published - 0004-637X_644_1_510.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 36283
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20130109-152442449
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2013-01-09Created from EPrint's datestamp field
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2021-11-09Created from EPrint's last_modified field