(ORDO NEWS) — Bulgarian astronomers have made observations of the young variable star V1180 Cas.
Located about 1950 light-years away, V1180 Cas is a young pre-main sequence (PMS) variable star. The star is associated with the dark cloud Lynds 1340 in a star forming region in the constellation Cassiopeia.
Previous observations of V1180 Cas have revealed variability with an amplitude of about 6 magnitudes, and scientists have suggested that it may be an eruptive star.
However, further study of V1180 Cas showed that it differs from PMS variable eruptive stars like FU Orionis and EX Wolf.
A team of astronomers led by Asen Mutafov from the National Astronomical Observatory in Sofia, Bulgaria used three telescopes from the Rozhen National Astronomical Observatory in Bulgaria and one telescope from the Skinakas Observatory in Greece to study the object.
Observations have shown that V1180 Cas exhibits very strong photometric variability with large amplitude fluctuations – up to 5 magnitudes.
Most of the time, the brightness of the star remains in the range of 15-16 magnitudes, but there are some changes in brightness with small amplitudes, as in T Tauri stars.
The photometric data show deep decreases in the brightness of V1180 Cas that have no periodicity. Overall, astronomers have identified four deep minima in the light curve.
The long-term light curve of V1180 Cas, according to the scientists, is similar to the light curve of young low-mass stars that exhibit typical flux variability. The collected photometric data show color change during brightness minima.
The researchers concluded that the new results support their initial assumptions regarding the mechanism underlying the variability in V1180 Cas.
“In our previous paper (Mutafov et al. 2019), we concluded that the photometric properties of V1180 Cas can be explained by a superposition of highly variable accretion from the circumstellar disk to the stellar surface and shadowing from circumstellar dust accumulations, planetesimals, or other features of the circumstellar disk.
New observational data confirm this conclusion,” the authors of the article explained.
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