Detection of H2 Emission from Mira B with the HST

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics

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Mira B, Ultraviolet, Molecular Hydrogen, Fluorescence, Accretion Disk

Scientific paper

We present results from our HST/STIS observations of Mira's companion (Mira B) carried out in 1999 August. Mira B is a compact object surrounded by an accretion disk at a distance of at least 70 AU from Mira. The high resolution ultraviolet spectra of Mira B obtained using STIS show that the spectral signatures of the accretion disk have changed dramatically when compared to HST observations obtained only four years earlier. The STIS UV spectrum detects numerous, narrow H2 lines fluoresced by H I Lyα, which have never been seen previously in spectra of the Mira AB system. Furthermore, the continuum fluxes in the Mira B spectra are much lower than observed before, at least an order of magnitude when compared to the 1995 HST/FOC objective prism spectra, and lower than ever observed by IUE. These significant changes in the spectral distribution of Mira B might be due to disk instabilities or inhomogeneity in Mira A's massive wind, or a combination of the two.

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