Protoplanetary discs around sun-like stars appear to live longer when the metallicity is low

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: De Marchi, Guido, Giardino, Giovanna, Biazzo, Katia, Panagia, Nino, Sabbi, Elena, Beck, Tracy L., Robberto, Massimo, Zeidler, Peter, Jones, Olivia C., Meixner, Margaret, Fahrion, Katja, Habel, Nolan, Nally, Conor, Hirschauer, Alec S., Soderblom, David R., Nayak, Omnarayani, Lenkic, Laura, Rogers, Ciaran, Brandl, Bernhard, Keyes, Charles D.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866929632334315520
author De Marchi, Guido
Giardino, Giovanna
Biazzo, Katia
Panagia, Nino
Sabbi, Elena
Beck, Tracy L.
Robberto, Massimo
Zeidler, Peter
Jones, Olivia C.
Meixner, Margaret
Fahrion, Katja
Habel, Nolan
Nally, Conor
Hirschauer, Alec S.
Soderblom, David R.
Nayak, Omnarayani
Lenkic, Laura
Rogers, Ciaran
Brandl, Bernhard
Keyes, Charles D.
author_facet De Marchi, Guido
Giardino, Giovanna
Biazzo, Katia
Panagia, Nino
Sabbi, Elena
Beck, Tracy L.
Robberto, Massimo
Zeidler, Peter
Jones, Olivia C.
Meixner, Margaret
Fahrion, Katja
Habel, Nolan
Nally, Conor
Hirschauer, Alec S.
Soderblom, David R.
Nayak, Omnarayani
Lenkic, Laura
Rogers, Ciaran
Brandl, Bernhard
Keyes, Charles D.
contents Previous Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations of the star-forming cluster NGC 346 in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) had revealed a large population of pre-main sequence (PMS) candidates, characterised by Halpha excess emission in their photometry. However, without access to spectroscopy, the nature of these objects remained unclear. Using the NIRSpec instrument on board JWST, we studied a sample of these stars, with masses in the range ~0.9-1.8 Msun, effective temperatures in the range 4,500-8,000 K, and PMS ages between ~0.1 and 30 Myr. Here we present the first spectra of solar-mass PMS stars in the metal-poor SMC (Z=1/8 Zsun) and discuss the physical properties of ten representative sources with good signal-to-noise ratio. The observations indicate that even the oldest of these PMS candidates are still accreting gas with typical rates of ~10^{-8} Msun/yr for stars older than ~10 Myr, confirming their PMS nature. The spectra also reveal near-infrared excess and molecular hydrogen excitation lines consistent with the presence of discs around these stars. These findings suggest that in a low-metallicity environment circumstellar discs can live longer than previously thought.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2412_10361
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Protoplanetary discs around sun-like stars appear to live longer when the metallicity is low
De Marchi, Guido
Giardino, Giovanna
Biazzo, Katia
Panagia, Nino
Sabbi, Elena
Beck, Tracy L.
Robberto, Massimo
Zeidler, Peter
Jones, Olivia C.
Meixner, Margaret
Fahrion, Katja
Habel, Nolan
Nally, Conor
Hirschauer, Alec S.
Soderblom, David R.
Nayak, Omnarayani
Lenkic, Laura
Rogers, Ciaran
Brandl, Bernhard
Keyes, Charles D.
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Previous Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations of the star-forming cluster NGC 346 in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) had revealed a large population of pre-main sequence (PMS) candidates, characterised by Halpha excess emission in their photometry. However, without access to spectroscopy, the nature of these objects remained unclear. Using the NIRSpec instrument on board JWST, we studied a sample of these stars, with masses in the range ~0.9-1.8 Msun, effective temperatures in the range 4,500-8,000 K, and PMS ages between ~0.1 and 30 Myr. Here we present the first spectra of solar-mass PMS stars in the metal-poor SMC (Z=1/8 Zsun) and discuss the physical properties of ten representative sources with good signal-to-noise ratio. The observations indicate that even the oldest of these PMS candidates are still accreting gas with typical rates of ~10^{-8} Msun/yr for stars older than ~10 Myr, confirming their PMS nature. The spectra also reveal near-infrared excess and molecular hydrogen excitation lines consistent with the presence of discs around these stars. These findings suggest that in a low-metallicity environment circumstellar discs can live longer than previously thought.
title Protoplanetary discs around sun-like stars appear to live longer when the metallicity is low
topic Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.10361