The Astrophysical Journal (Jan 2023)
Twenty-five Years of Accretion onto the Classical T Tauri Star TW Hya
- Gregory J. Herczeg,
- Yuguang Chen,
- Jean-Francois Donati,
- Andrea K. Dupree,
- Frederick M. Walter,
- Lynne A. Hillenbrand,
- Christopher M. Johns-Krull,
- Carlo F. Manara,
- Hans Moritz Günther,
- Min Fang,
- P. Christian Schneider,
- Jeff A. Valenti,
- Silvia H. P. Alencar,
- Laura Venuti,
- Juan Manuel Alcalá,
- Antonio Frasca,
- Nicole Arulanantham,
- Jeffrey L. Linsky,
- Jerome Bouvier,
- Nancy S. Brickhouse,
- Nuria Calvet,
- Catherine C. Espaillat,
- Justyn Campbell-White,
- John M. Carpenter,
- Seok-Jun Chang,
- Kelle L. Cruz,
- S. E. Dahm,
- Jochen Eislöffel,
- Suzan Edwards,
- William J. Fischer,
- Zhen Guo,
- Thomas Henning,
- Tao Ji,
- Jessy Jose,
- Joel H. Kastner,
- Ralf Launhardt,
- David A. Principe,
- Connor E. Robinson,
- Javier Serna,
- Michal Siwak,
- Michael F. Sterzik,
- Shinsuke Takasao
Affiliations
- Gregory J. Herczeg
- ORCiD
- Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Peking University , Beijing 100871, People's Republic of China ; [email protected]; Department of Astronomy, Peking University , Beijing 100871, People's Republic of China; Visiting astronomer, Department of Astronomy; California Institute of Technology ; Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
- Yuguang Chen
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of California Davis, 1 Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA ; [email protected]
- Jean-Francois Donati
- ORCiD
- IRAP-UMR 5277, CNRS & Université de Toulouse, 14 Avenue Edouard Belin, F-31400, Toulouse, France
- Andrea K. Dupree
- ORCiD
- Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
- Frederick M. Walter
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics & Astronomy, Stony Brook University , Stony Brook NY 11794-3800, USA
- Lynne A. Hillenbrand
- Department of Astronomy, California Institute of Technology ; Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
- Christopher M. Johns-Krull
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University , 6100 Main Street, Houston, TX 77005, USA
- Carlo F. Manara
- ORCiD
- European Southern Observatory , Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2, D-85748 Garching bei München, Germany
- Hans Moritz Günther
- ORCiD
- MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research , 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- Min Fang
- ORCiD
- Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences , 10 Yuanhua Road, Nanjing 210023, People's Republic of China; University of Science and Technology of China , Hefei 230026, People's Republic of China
- P. Christian Schneider
- ORCiD
- Hamburger Sternwarte , Gojenbergsweg 112, D-21029, Hamburg, Germany
- Jeff A. Valenti
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Silvia H. P. Alencar
- ORCiD
- Departamento de Fisica, ICEx-UFMG , Avenida Antonio Carlos 6627, 30270-901 Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
- Laura Venuti
- ORCiD
- SETI Institute , 339 Bernardo Avenue, Suite 200, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA
- Juan Manuel Alcalá
- ORCiD
- INAF–Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte , via Moiariello 16, I-80131 Napoli, Italy
- Antonio Frasca
- ORCiD
- INAF–Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania , via S. Sofia, 78, I-95123 Catania, Italy
- Nicole Arulanantham
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Jeffrey L. Linsky
- ORCiD
- JILA, University of Colorado , Boulder, CO 80309-0440, USA
- Jerome Bouvier
- Université Grenoble Alpes , CNRS, IPAG, F-38000 Grenoble, France
- Nancy S. Brickhouse
- ORCiD
- Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
- Nuria Calvet
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan , 1085 South University Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
- Catherine C. Espaillat
- ORCiD
- Institute for Astrophysical Research, Department of Astronomy, Boston University , 725 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215, USA
- Justyn Campbell-White
- ORCiD
- European Southern Observatory , Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2, D-85748 Garching bei München, Germany
- John M. Carpenter
- ORCiD
- Joint ALMA Observatory , Avenida Alonso de Córdova 3107, Vitacura, Santiago, Chile
- Seok-Jun Chang
- ORCiD
- Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik , Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 1, D-85748 Garching bei München, Germany
- Kelle L. Cruz
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Hunter College, City University of New York , 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA; Physics ∣ Graduate Center of the City University of New York, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA; Department of Astrophysics, American Museum of Natural History , 200 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024, USA
- S. E. Dahm
- ORCiD
- Gemini Observatory/NSF's NOIRLab , 950 N. Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA
- Jochen Eislöffel
- ORCiD
- Thüringer Landessternwarte , Sternwarte 5, D-07778 Tautenburg, Germany
- Suzan Edwards
- ORCiD
- Five College Astronomy Department, Smith College , Northampton, MA 01063, USA
- William J. Fischer
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Zhen Guo
- ORCiD
- Instituto de Física y Astronomía, Universidad de Valparaíso , Avenida Gran Bretaña, 1111, Casilla 5030, Valparaíso, Chile; Núcleo Milenio de Formación Planetaria (NPF) , Avenida Gran Bretaña, 1111, Casilla 5030, Valparaíso, Chile; Centre for Astrophysics Research, University of Hertfordshire , Hatfield AL10 9AB, UK; Departamento de Física, Universidad Tecnicá Federico Santa María , Avenida España 1680, Valparaíso, Chile
- Thomas Henning
- ORCiD
- Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie , Königstuhl 17, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany
- Tao Ji
- Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Peking University , Beijing 100871, People's Republic of China ; [email protected]; Department of Astronomy, Peking University , Beijing 100871, People's Republic of China
- Jessy Jose
- ORCiD
- Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Tirupati , Rami Reddy Nagar, Karakambadi Road, Mangalam (P.O.), Tirupati 517507, India
- Joel H. Kastner
- ORCiD
- Center for Imaging Science, School of Physics and Astronomy, and Laboratory for Multiwavelength Astrophysics, Rochester Institute of Technology , Rochester, NY 14623, USA
- Ralf Launhardt
- ORCiD
- Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie , Königstuhl 17, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany
- David A. Principe
- ORCiD
- MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research , 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- Connor E. Robinson
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics & Astronomy, Amherst College , C025 Science Center 25 East Drive, Amherst, MA 01002, USA
- Javier Serna
- ORCiD
- Instituto de Astronomía, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México Ensenada , B.C, México
- Michal Siwak
- ORCiD
- Konkoly Observatory, Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences , Eötvös Loránd Research Network (ELKH), Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Konkoly–Thege Miklós út 15–17, 1121 Budapest, Hungary; CSFK, MTA Centre of Excellence , Budapest, Konkoly Thege Miklós út 15-17, H-1121, Hungary
- Michael F. Sterzik
- ORCiD
- European Southern Observatory , Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2, D-85748 Garching bei München, Germany
- Shinsuke Takasao
- ORCiD
- Department of Earth and Space Science, Graduate School of Science, Osaka University , Toyonaka, Osaka 560-0043, Japan
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/acf468
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 956,
no. 2
p. 102
Abstract
Accretion plays a central role in the physics that governs the evolution and dispersal of protoplanetary disks. The primary goal of this paper is to analyze the stability over time of the mass accretion rate onto TW Hya, the nearest accreting solar-mass young star. We measure veiling across the optical spectrum in 1169 archival high-resolution spectra of TW Hya, obtained from 1998–2022. The veiling is then converted to accretion rate using 26 flux-calibrated spectra that cover the Balmer jump. The accretion rate measured from the excess continuum has an average of 2.51 × 10 ^−9 M _⊙ yr ^−1 and a Gaussian distribution with an FWHM of 0.22 dex. This accretion rate may be underestimated by a factor of up to 1.5 because of uncertainty in the bolometric correction and another factor of 1.7 because of excluding the fraction of accretion energy that escapes in lines, especially Ly α . The accretion luminosities are well correlated with He line luminosities but poorly correlated with H α and H β luminosity. The accretion rate is always flickering over hours but on longer timescales has been stable over 25 years. This level of variability is consistent with previous measurements for most, but not all, accreting young stars.
Keywords
- Classical T Tauri stars
- Stellar accretion disks
- Protoplanetary disks
- High resolution spectroscopy
- Variable stars
