HR_2501

HR 2501

HR 2501

Star in the constellation Canis Major


HR 2501, also known as HD 49131 and HP Canis Majoris, is a star about 2,000 light years from the Earth, in the constellation Canis Major.[3] It is a 5th magnitude star, so it will be faintly visible to the naked eye of an observer far from city lights.[3] It is a variable star, whose brightness varies from magnitude 5.35 to 5.80 on a variety of timescales ranging from hours to hundreds of days.[4][12]

Quick Facts Constellation, Right ascension ...

In 1838, John Herschel discovered that HR 2501 is a double star, with a magnitude 8.4 companion 4.9 arc seconds away.[13] The companion is a slightly less massive, cooler, and less luminous B-type main sequence star.[3] It is also a chemically peculiar helium-weak star.[5]

In 1977, Mikolaj Jerzykiewicz and Christiaan Sterken detected slight (0.12 magnitude) variability in the brightness of HR 2501 during their search for beta Cephei variable stars in the southern sky.[14] Christoffel Waelkens et al. confirmed that HR 2501 is variable in 1983, and reported that it varied in brightness on a timescale of weeks to months, with no clear period.[15] In 1986 it was given the variable star designation HP Canis Majoris.[16] In 1998, Anne-Marie Hubert and Michele Floquet examined the Hipparcos data for HR 2501, and found that it exhibited outbursts in which the brightness increased by 0.35 magnitudes, with a rise time of 100 days and a decay time of 400 days.[17]

In 1984, Christopher Corbally found that the spectrum HR 2501 shows Hα, Hβ, Hγ and Hδ emission features, which along with its spectral type makes it a Be star.[5] Jacqueline Coté found that the IRAS data for HR 2501 showed excess (above what would be expected from the star's photosphere) 12 and 25 μ emission. She concluded that this infrared excess could be due to either a circumstellar dust shell located 21 stellar radii from HR 2501, with a temperature of about 585 K, or (more likely) free-free emission from circumstellar gas.[18]

An extensive study of HR 2501, published in 2003 by Fabien Carrier and Gilbert Burki, found that the star exhibits several periodicities. The radial velocity varies by 20.5 km/sec with a period of 19.005±0.0091 hours. They confirm the roughly 500 day photometric period found earlier by Hubert and Floquet, and suggest these outbursts may arise from episodes of matter ejection from the star or disk formation. Finally, they found a low amplitude (0.065 magnitude) brightness oscillation with a period of 11.05 hours. Spectroscopic data were presented by Carrier and Burki which suggest that during the brightness outbursts, "blobs" of ejected matter can be detected moving through a Keplerian disk surrounding the star.[12]


References

  1. EAS (1997). "The HIPPARCOS and TYCHO catalogues". Astrometric and Photometric Star Catalogues Derived from the ESA Hipparcos Space Astrometry Mission. ESA SP Series. 1200. Noordwijk, Netherlands: ESA Publications Division. Bibcode:1997ESASP1200.....E. ISBN 9290923997. Retrieved 15 October 2022.
  2. "MAST: Barbara A. Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes". Space Telescope Science Institute. Retrieved 19 February 2023.
  3. N. N. Samus; O. V. Durlevich; et al. "V918 Sco database entry". Combined General Catalog of Variable Stars (2017 ed.). CDS. Retrieved 2023-02-21.
  4. Corbally, C. J. (August 1984). "Close visual binaries.I.MK classifications". Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. 55: 657–677. Bibcode:1984ApJS...55..657C. doi:10.1086/190973. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
  5. "HP CMa". The International Variable Star Index. AAVSO. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
  6. Melnik, A. M.; Dambis, A. K. (2020). "Distance scale for high-luminosity stars in OB associations and in field with Gaia DR2. Spurious systematic motions". Astrophysics and Space Science. 365 (7): 112. arXiv:2006.14649. Bibcode:2020Ap&SS.365..112M. doi:10.1007/s10509-020-03827-0. S2CID 220128144.
  7. Tetzlaff, N.; et al. (January 2011). "A catalogue of young runaway Hipparcos stars within 3 kpc from the Sun". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 410 (1): 190–200. arXiv:1007.4883. Bibcode:2011MNRAS.410..190T. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.17434.x. S2CID 118629873.
  8. McDonald, I.; Zijlstra, A. A.; Watson, R. A. (15 June 2017). "Fundamental parameters and infrared excesses of Tycho–Gaia stars". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 471 (1): 770–791. arXiv:1706.02208. Bibcode:2017MNRAS.471..770M. doi:10.1093/mnras/stx1433. eISSN 1365-2966. ISSN 0035-8711.
  9. Carrier, F.; Burki, G. (April 2003). "Outbursts in the Be star HR 2501". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 401: 271–279. Bibcode:2003A&A...401..271C. doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20030125. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
  10. Worley, C. E.; Douglass, G. G. (November 1997). "The Washington Double Star Catalog (WDS, 1996.0)". Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series. 125 (3): 523. Bibcode:1997A&AS..125..523W. doi:10.1051/aas:1997239. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
  11. Waelkens, C.; Rufener, F.; Burnet, M. (1983). "Photometric variations of some early Be stars". Hvar Observatory Bulletin. 7 (1): 125–130. Bibcode:1983HvaOB...7..125W. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
  12. Kholopov, P. N.; Samus, N. N.; Kazarovets, E. V.; Kireeva, N. N. (August 1987). "The 68th Name-List of Variable Stars" (PDF). Information Bulletin on Variable Stars. 3058: 1. Bibcode:1987IBVS.3058....1K. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
  13. Hubert, A. M.; Floquet, M. (July 1998). "Investigation of the variability of bright Be stars using HIPPARCOS photometry". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 335: 565–572. Bibcode:1998A&A...335..565H. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
  14. Coté, J. (July 1987). "B and A type stars with unexpectedly large colour excesses at IRAS wavelengths". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 181: 77–84. Bibcode:1987A&A...181...77C. Retrieved 23 February 2023.

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