Uxor Presentation

Uxors

Stars partially obscured by debris

cloudsAmanda Bacon and Connor McElravy

Characteristics of Uxors: Mass

Drawn to scale-Neptune is approx. 2,795,084,800 miles from the sun (not in picture)

Newton’s Apple, 2015, webCool Cosmos, 2015, web

-Uxor stars are commonly intermediate-mass stars; similar to the mass of our sun.

Characteristics of Uxors: Formation

-Theories suggest that Uxors are young stars surrounded by a disk of dust and debris.

-The dust and debris aggregate in a formation process to create the young star.

Characteristics of Uxors: Disks

-The debris cloud is not consistently dense throughout, which causes the star to appear to fluctuate in brightness.

-Theories suggest we are looking at the cloud at an angle into the outer flaring region, which obscures our view. The rest of the time we have a clear perspective of the star.

Outer flaring region

Uxors and Eclipsing Binary Stars-When two stars are gravitationally pulled towards each other they are known as eclipsing binary stars.

-Appear to dim in brightness similar to Uxors.

-Smooth, consistent dimming period differing from Uxors.

MidnightKite, 2015, web

Uxors and Eclipsing Binary Stars-Uxors are more erratic with no consistent period between events.

-Uxors will appear to have a color shift as the dust cloud density changes.

-Red due to dust absorption.

-Blue due to unobscured scattered radiation.

Starman, 2015, web

Uxor versus Eclipsing Binary Star Light CurvesEclipsing Binary

Brig

htne

ssTime (Days)

Uxor

Archived Data

Archived Data

Archived Data

Archived Data

Archived Data

Archived Data

Conclusion- We have been observing these Uxors for six weeks. Approx. 20 nights

-There are 3 unclear stars with strong light variation that need follow-up observations.

-There is 1 strong candidate to be classified as an Uxor.

-There is 1 star with minimal light variation.