1. TU Tau B: The Peculiar 'Eclipse' of a possible proto-Barium Giant
- Author
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Gray, Richard O., Corbally, Christopher J., Briley, Michael M., McKay, Adam, Sims, Forrest, Boyd, David, Boussin, Christophe, McGahee, Courtney E., Buchheim, Robert, Walker, Gary, Iadevaia, David, Fernandez, David Cejudo, Lemay, Damien, Martin, Jack, Grubb, Jim, Stiewing, Albert, Daglen, Joseph, Shank, Keith, Andrews, Sydney, Barnhardt, Nick, Clark, Rebekah, Corman, Hunter, Gomes, Sabina, Jonnalagadda, Agastya, McDaries, Theo, Mills, Ava, Newsom, Will, Slate, Andrew, and Watts, Michael
- Subjects
Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics - Abstract
TU Tau (= HD 38218 = HIP 27135) is a binary system consisting of a C-N carbon star primary and an A-type secondary. We report on new photometry and spectroscopy which tracked the recent disappearance of the A-star secondary. The dimming of the A-star was gradual and irregular, with one or more brief brightenings, implying the presence of nonhomogeneities in the carbon star outflow. We also present evidence that the A-star is actively accreting s-process enriched material from the carbon star and suggest that it will therefore eventually evolve into a Barium giant. This is an important system as well because the A-type star can serve as a probe of the outer atmosphere of the carbon star., Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, 4 tables, a number of amateur observatories made significant contributions to this research. Paper accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal
- Published
- 2023
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