The Light Curve of the Weak-lined T Tauri Binary KH 15D from 2005-10: New Insights into the Nature of its Protoplanetary Disk

Details The Light Curve of the Weak-lined T Tauri Binary KH 15D from 2005-10: New Insights into the Nature of its Protoplanetary Disk The Light Curve of the Weak-lined T Tauri Binary KH 15D from 2005-10: New Insights into the Nature of its Protoplanetary Disk

May 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010aas...21642203h&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #216, #422.03; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.834

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Scientific paper

Photometry of the unique pre-main sequence binary system KH 15D is presented, spanning the years 2005-20010. Advancement of the occulting edge has continued and the photospheres of both stars are now completely obscured at all binary phases. The system has transitioned to a state in which it is visible only by scattered light, yet it continues to show a periodic variation on the orbital cycle with an amplitude exceeding two magnitudes. This variation has likely been present in the data since at least 1995 but has not previously been recognized. It accounts for the apparent shoulders on the light curve prior to ingress and following egress that have been modeled as a scattering halo around star A or forward scattering from a fuzzy disk edge. A plausible source is reflected light from the far side of the flared occulting disk. We have detected significant and dramatic color changes to both the red and blue during central minima. These may indicate the presence of a third source of (red) light, such as a faint star or brown dwarf, or a change in the reflectance properties of the disk as the illumination zone changes. The data support a picture of the circumbinary disk as a geometrically thin, optically thick layer of perhaps mm or cm-sized particles that has been sculpted by the binary stars and other components. A simple (infinitely sharp) knife-edge model does an excellent job of accounting for all of the occultation data when one allows for variations from cycle to cycle in the location of the edge at the level of 0.1-0.2 stellar diameters and for the spottedness of star A. Support from NASA through its Origins of Solar Systems Program is gratefully acknowledged.

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