Abstract
We present a photometric detection of the first brightness dips of the unique variable star KIC 8462852 since the end of the Kepler space mission in 2013 May. Our regular photometric surveillance started in 2015 October, and a sequence of dipping began in 2017 May continuing on through the end of 2017, when the star was no longer visible from Earth. We distinguish four main 1%-2.5% dips, named "Elsie," "Celeste," "Skara Brae," and "Angkor," which persist on timescales from several days to weeks. Our main results so far are as follows: (i) there are no apparent changes of the stellar spectrum or polarization during the dips and (ii) the multiband photometry of the dips shows differential reddening favoring non-gray extinction. Therefore, our data are inconsistent with dip models that invoke optically thick material, but rather they are in-line with predictions for an occulter consisting primarily of ordinary dust, where much of the material must be optically thin with a size scale ≪1 μm, and may also be consistent with models invoking variations intrinsic to the stellar photosphere. Notably, our data do not place constraints on the color of the longer-term "secular" dimming, which may be caused by independent processes, or probe different regimes of a single process.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Article number | L8 |
Journal | Astrophysical Journal Letters |
Volume | 853 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 20 2018 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- comets: general
- stars: activity
- stars: individual (KIC 8462852)
- stars: peculia
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Space and Planetary Science
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In: Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 853, No. 1, L8, 20.01.2018.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - The First Post-Kepler Brightness Dips of KIC 8462852
AU - Boyajian, Tabetha S.
AU - Alonso, Roi
AU - Ammerman, Alex
AU - Armstrong, David
AU - Ramos, A. Asensio
AU - Barkaoui, K.
AU - Beatty, Thomas G.
AU - Benkhaldoun, Z.
AU - Benni, Paul
AU - Bentley, Rory O.
AU - Berdyugin, Andrei
AU - Berdyugina, Svetlana
AU - Bergeron, Serge
AU - Bieryla, Allyson
AU - Blain, Michaela G.
AU - Blanco, Alicia Capetillo
AU - Bodman, Eva H.L.
AU - Boucher, Anne
AU - Bradley, Mark
AU - Brincat, Stephen M.
AU - Brink, Thomas G.
AU - Briol, John
AU - Brown, David J.A.
AU - Budaj, J.
AU - Burdanov, A.
AU - Cale, B.
AU - Carbo, Miguel Aznar
AU - Garcia, R. Castillo
AU - Clark, Wendy J.
AU - Clayton, Geoffrey C.
AU - Clem, James L.
AU - Coker, Phillip H.
AU - Cook, Evan M.
AU - Copperwheat, Chris M.
AU - Curtis, J. L.
AU - Cutri, R. M.
AU - Cseh, B.
AU - Cynamon, C. H.
AU - Daniels, Alex J.
AU - Davenport, James R.A.
AU - Deeg, Hans J.
AU - Lorenzo, Roberto De
AU - Jaeger, Thomas De
AU - Desrosiers, Jean Bruno
AU - Dolan, John
AU - Dowhos, D. J.
AU - Dubois, Franky
AU - Durkee, R.
AU - Dvorak, Shawn
AU - Easley, Lynn
AU - Edwards, N.
AU - Ellis, Tyler G.
AU - Erdelyi, Emery
AU - Ertel, Steve
AU - Farfán, Rafael G.
AU - Farihi, J.
AU - Filippenko, Alexei V.
AU - Foxell, Emma
AU - Gandolfi, Davide
AU - Garcia, Faustino
AU - Giddens, F.
AU - Gillon, M.
AU - González-Carballo, Juan Luis
AU - González-Fernández, C.
AU - Hernández, J. I.González
AU - Graham, Keith A.
AU - Greene, Kenton A.
AU - Gregorio, J.
AU - Hallakoun, Na'Ama
AU - Hanyecz, Ottó
AU - Harp, G. R.
AU - Henry, Gregory W.
AU - Herrero, E.
AU - Hildbold, Caleb F.
AU - Hinzel, D.
AU - Holgado, G.
AU - Ignácz, Bernadett
AU - Ilyin, Ilya
AU - Ivanov, Valentin D.
AU - Jehin, E.
AU - Jermak, Helen E.
AU - Johnston, Steve
AU - Kafka, S.
AU - Kalup, Csilla
AU - Kardasis, Emmanuel
AU - Kaspi, Shai
AU - Kennedy, Grant M.
AU - Kiefer, F.
AU - Kielty, C. L.
AU - Kessler, Dennis
AU - Kiiskinen, H.
AU - Killestein, T. L.
AU - King, Ronald A.
AU - Kollar, V.
AU - Korhonen, H.
AU - Kotnik, C.
AU - Könyves-Tóth, Réka
AU - Kriskovics, Levente
AU - Krumm, Nathan
AU - Krushinsky, Vadim
AU - Kundra, E.
AU - Lachapelle, Francois Rene
AU - LaCourse, D.
AU - Lake, P.
AU - Lam, Kristine
AU - Lamb, Gavin P.
AU - Lane, Dave
AU - Lau, Marie Wingyee
AU - Lewin, Pablo
AU - Lintott, Chris
AU - Lisse, Carey
AU - Logie, Ludwig
AU - Longeard, Nicolas
AU - Villanueva, M. Lopez
AU - Ludington, E. Whit
AU - Mainzer, A.
AU - Malo, Lison
AU - Maloney, Chris
AU - Mann, A.
AU - Mantero, A.
AU - Marengo, Massimo
AU - Marchant, Jon
AU - Martinez González, M. J.
AU - Masiero, Joseph R.
AU - Mauerhan, Jon C.
AU - McCormac, James
AU - McNeely, Aaron
AU - Meng, Huan Y.A.
AU - Miller, Mike
AU - Molnar, Lawrence A.
AU - Morales, J. C.
AU - Morris, Brett M.
AU - Muterspaugh, Matthew W.
AU - Nespral, David
AU - Nugent, C. R.
AU - Nugent, Katherine M.
AU - Odasso, A.
AU - O'Keeffe, Derek
AU - Oksanen, A.
AU - O'Meara, John M.
AU - Ordasi, András
AU - Osborn, Hugh
AU - Ott, John J.
AU - Parks, J. R.
AU - Perez, Diego Rodriguez
AU - Petriew, Vance
AU - Pickard, R.
AU - Pál, András
AU - Plavchan, P.
AU - Pollacco, Don
AU - Nunez, F. Pozo
AU - Pozuelos, F. J.
AU - Rau, Steve
AU - Redfield, Seth
AU - Relles, Howard
AU - Ribas, Ignasi
AU - Richards, Jon
AU - Saario, Joonas L.O.
AU - Safron, Emily J.
AU - Sallai, J. Martin
AU - Sárneczky, Krisztián
AU - Schaefer, Bradley E.
AU - Schumer, Clea F.
AU - Schwartzendruber, Madison
AU - Siegel, Michael H.
AU - Siemion, Andrew P.V.
AU - Simmons, Brooke D.
AU - Simon, Joshua D.
AU - Simón-Diaz, S.
AU - Sitko, Michael L.
AU - Socas-Navarro, Hector
AU - Sódor, A.
AU - Starkey, Donn
AU - Steele, Iain A.
AU - Stone, Geoff
AU - Strassmeier, Klaus G.
AU - Street, R. A.
AU - Sullivan, Tricia
AU - Suomela, J.
AU - Swift, J. J.
AU - Szabó, Gyula M.
AU - Szabó, Róbert
AU - Szakáts, Róbert
AU - Szalai, Tamás
AU - Tanner, Angelle M.
AU - Toledo-Padrón, B.
AU - Tordai, Tamás
AU - Triaud, Amaury H.M.J.
AU - Turner, Jake D.
AU - Ulowetz, Joseph H.
AU - Urbanik, Marian
AU - Vanaverbeke, Siegfried
AU - Vanderburg, Andrew
AU - Vida, Krisztián
AU - Vietje, Brad P.
AU - Vinkó, József
AU - Braun, K. Von
AU - Waagen, Elizabeth O.
AU - Walsh, Dan
AU - Watson, Christopher A.
AU - Weir, R. C.
AU - Wenzel, Klaus
AU - Plaza, C. Westendorp
AU - Williamson, Michael W.
AU - Wright, Jason T.
AU - Wyatt, M. C.
AU - Zheng, Weikang
AU - Zsidi, Gabriella
N1 - Funding Information: A major upgrade of the Kast spectrograph on the Shane 3m telescope at Lick Observatory was made possible through generous gifts from William and Marina Kast as well as the Heising-Simons Foundation. Research at Lick Observatory is partially supported by a generous gift from Google. Some of the data presented herein were obtained at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); the observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation. This publication makes use of data products from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, which is a joint project of the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, funded by NASA. This publication also makes use of data products from NEOWISE, which is a project of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, funded by the Planetary Science Division of NASA. Software: emcee (Foreman-Mackey et al. 2013). Funding Information: The LCOGT observations used in this project were made possible by the collective effort of 1762 supporters as part of the Kickstarter campaign “The Most Mysterious Star in the Galaxy.”140 The authors gratefully acknowledge and humbly extend a special thanks for substantial support from Las Cumbres Observatory, Glenn Klakring, Fred Boyajian and Bobbie Staley, Alex Mazingue, The Bible Family, Claudio Bottaccini, Joachim De Lombaert, Amity and Brigid Williams, Kevin Fischer, William Hopkins, Milton Bosch, Zipeng Wang, T.J., D.R., and C.C. The authors thank Peter Foukal for helpful conversations. A.T. wishes to acknowledge her mother, Celeste, for all her love and efforts to help her become an astronomer. A.T. also wishes to thank the Boyajian’s Star Kickstarter team for electing to name dip “Celeste” after her mom who passed away in 2017 June. Mom would have been pleased and would have “got it.” H.D. acknowledges support from grant ESP2015-65712-C5-4-R of the Spanish Secretary of State for R&D&i (MINECO). This research made use of data acquired with the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), installed at the Spanish Observa-torio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, in the island of La Palma. J.B. acknowledges the support from the VEGA 2/0031/18 and APVV 15-0458 grants. The Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds is supported by the Pennsylvania State University, the Eberly College of Science, and the Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium. E.H.L.B.ʼs research was supported by an appointment to the NASA Postdoctoral Program with the Nexus for Exoplanet System Science, administered by Universities Space Research Association under contract with NASA. A.V.F.ʼs group is grateful for financial assistance from the TABASGO Foundation, the Christopher R. Redlich Fund, Gary and Cynthia Bengier (T.d.J. is a Bengier Postdoctoral fellow), and the Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science (U.C. Berkeley). This project was supported by the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund of Hungary, financed under the K_16 funding scheme (project No. NKFIH K-115709). The research leading to these results has received funding from the ARC grant for Concerted Research Actions, financed by the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. M. Gillon is Research Associate at the Belgian Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (F.R.S.-FNRS). B.D.S. acknowledges support from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) through Einstein Postdoctoral Fellowship Award Number PF5-160143 issued by the Chandra X-ray Observatory Center, which is operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory for and on behalf of NASA under contract NAS8-03060. E.H. and I.R. acknowledge support by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) and the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) through grant ESP2016-80435-C2-1-R, as well as the support of the Generalitat de Catalunya/ CERCA programme. A.A.R., H.S.N., and M.J.M.G. acknowledge financial support by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through projects AYA2014-60476-P and AYA2014-60833-P. F.J.P.R is supported by Marie Curie CO-FUND fellowship, co-founded by the University of Liège and the European Union. F.P.N. is supported by grants 950/15 from the Israeli Science Foundation (ISF) and 3555/14-1 fromthe Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). Funding Information: 144 IRAF is distributed by the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, which is operated by AURA, Inc., under a cooperative agreement with the NSF. 145 https://github.com/ishivvers/TheKastShiv Publisher Copyright: © 2018. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..
PY - 2018/1/20
Y1 - 2018/1/20
N2 - We present a photometric detection of the first brightness dips of the unique variable star KIC 8462852 since the end of the Kepler space mission in 2013 May. Our regular photometric surveillance started in 2015 October, and a sequence of dipping began in 2017 May continuing on through the end of 2017, when the star was no longer visible from Earth. We distinguish four main 1%-2.5% dips, named "Elsie," "Celeste," "Skara Brae," and "Angkor," which persist on timescales from several days to weeks. Our main results so far are as follows: (i) there are no apparent changes of the stellar spectrum or polarization during the dips and (ii) the multiband photometry of the dips shows differential reddening favoring non-gray extinction. Therefore, our data are inconsistent with dip models that invoke optically thick material, but rather they are in-line with predictions for an occulter consisting primarily of ordinary dust, where much of the material must be optically thin with a size scale ≪1 μm, and may also be consistent with models invoking variations intrinsic to the stellar photosphere. Notably, our data do not place constraints on the color of the longer-term "secular" dimming, which may be caused by independent processes, or probe different regimes of a single process.
AB - We present a photometric detection of the first brightness dips of the unique variable star KIC 8462852 since the end of the Kepler space mission in 2013 May. Our regular photometric surveillance started in 2015 October, and a sequence of dipping began in 2017 May continuing on through the end of 2017, when the star was no longer visible from Earth. We distinguish four main 1%-2.5% dips, named "Elsie," "Celeste," "Skara Brae," and "Angkor," which persist on timescales from several days to weeks. Our main results so far are as follows: (i) there are no apparent changes of the stellar spectrum or polarization during the dips and (ii) the multiband photometry of the dips shows differential reddening favoring non-gray extinction. Therefore, our data are inconsistent with dip models that invoke optically thick material, but rather they are in-line with predictions for an occulter consisting primarily of ordinary dust, where much of the material must be optically thin with a size scale ≪1 μm, and may also be consistent with models invoking variations intrinsic to the stellar photosphere. Notably, our data do not place constraints on the color of the longer-term "secular" dimming, which may be caused by independent processes, or probe different regimes of a single process.
KW - comets: general
KW - stars: activity
KW - stars: individual (KIC 8462852)
KW - stars: peculia
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85041223676&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85041223676&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3847/2041-8213/aaa405
DO - 10.3847/2041-8213/aaa405
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85041223676
SN - 2041-8205
VL - 853
JO - Astrophysical Journal Letters
JF - Astrophysical Journal Letters
IS - 1
M1 - L8
ER -