TY - JOUR
T1 - Discovery of a long-lived, high-amplitude dusty infrared transient
AU - Britt, C. T.
AU - Maccarone, T. J.
AU - Green, J. D.
AU - Jonker, P. G.
AU - Hynes, R. I.
AU - Torres, M. A.P.
AU - Strader, J.
AU - Chomiuk, L.
AU - Salinas, R.
AU - Lucas, P.
AU - Contreras Peña, C.
AU - Kurtev, R.
AU - Heinke, C.
AU - Smith, L.
AU - Wright, N. J.
AU - Johnson, C.
AU - Steeghs, D.
AU - Nelemans, G.
N1 - Funding Information:
TJM thanks Rob Fender, Selma de Mink, and Anna Scaife for discussions. CTB, TJM, and JDG thank Neal Evans for useful discussions. CTB thanks Paul Sell for discussions on emission from shocks. CTB, TJM, and LC thank Ulisse Munari for insights on the optical spectral properties. RIH acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation under Grant No. AST-0 908789. PGJ and MAPT acknowledge support from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research. This research has made use of NASA's Astrophysics Data System Bibliographic Services and of SAOImage DS9, developed by Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.
PY - 2016/8/11
Y1 - 2016/8/11
N2 - We report the detection of an infrared-selected transient which has lasted at least five years, first identified by a large mid-infrared and optical outburst from a faint X-ray source detected with the Chandra X-ray Observatory. In this paper we rule out several scenarios for the cause of this outburst, including a classical nova, a luminous red nova, AGN flaring, a stellar merger, and intermediate luminosity optical transients, and interpret this transient as the result of a young stellar object (YSO) of at least solar mass accreting material from the remains of the dusty envelope from which it formed, in isolation from either a dense complex of cold gas or massive star formation. This object does not fit neatly into other existing categories of large outbursts of YSOs (FU Orionis types) which may be a result of the object's mass, age, and environment. It is also possible that this object is a new type of transient unrelated to YSOs.
AB - We report the detection of an infrared-selected transient which has lasted at least five years, first identified by a large mid-infrared and optical outburst from a faint X-ray source detected with the Chandra X-ray Observatory. In this paper we rule out several scenarios for the cause of this outburst, including a classical nova, a luminous red nova, AGN flaring, a stellar merger, and intermediate luminosity optical transients, and interpret this transient as the result of a young stellar object (YSO) of at least solar mass accreting material from the remains of the dusty envelope from which it formed, in isolation from either a dense complex of cold gas or massive star formation. This object does not fit neatly into other existing categories of large outbursts of YSOs (FU Orionis types) which may be a result of the object's mass, age, and environment. It is also possible that this object is a new type of transient unrelated to YSOs.
KW - Stars: formation
KW - Stars: pre-main-sequence
KW - Stars: variables: T Tauri, Herbig Ae/Be
KW - Stars: variables: general
KW - Stars: winds, outflows
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84983233470&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/mnras/stw1182
DO - 10.1093/mnras/stw1182
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84983233470
SN - 0035-8711
VL - 460
SP - 2822
EP - 2833
JO - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
JF - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
IS - 3
ER -