Accretion Signatures in TW Hya

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

Scientific paper

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Scientific paper

High resolution optical spectra of the nearby accreting T Tauri star TW Hya were taken during three nights in February 2007 using the MIKE spectrograph on the Magellan/Clay telescope. These optical spectra were used to evaluate the presence of "optical veiling," an optical continuum thought to be produced by the accretion process. Contemporaneously, a long observation of the X-ray spectrum of TW Hya was obtained by the CHANDRA satellite. We find a correlation between the amount of veiling and the coronal X-ray emission in which the X-rays are delayed by + 0.11 day, suggesting that the accretion process can feed the stellar corona. In addition, we have made temperature measurements of the veiling continuum produced by the hotspot in the photosphere of TW Hya, with results ranging from 8500 K - 12000 K. The veiling appears to indicate that the size of the photospheric hotspot is changing as well. These results will help to identify the contributions of both accretion and coronal activity to the X-ray emission, and determine the characteristics of the accretion process.
This work is supported in part by the NSF REU and DOD ASSURE programs under NSF grant No. 0754568 and by the Smithsonian Institution.

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