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2w ago

Astronomers Tie 200-Day Stellar Dimming to Ringed Sub-Stellar Companion

A new MNRAS analysis infers a companion over three Jupiter masses with an enormous, opaque ring system as the cause.

Image
An artist’s impression of the stellar dimming event caused by a brown dwarf or super-Jupiter with massive rings (foreground) forming an opaque “saucer” through which some light from the star ASASSN-24fw (background) shines. A red dwarf star (left) was also discovered in the neighborhood during the research. (Credit: S. Shah et al.)

Overview

  • ASASSN-24fw, about 3,200 light-years away in Monoceros, faded by roughly 97 percent for nearly 200 days before returning to normal brightness.
  • Modeling points to a brown dwarf or super-Jupiter whose optically thick rings, extending about 0.17 astronomical units, produced the long occultation.
  • The putative companion and its rings are inferred from photometric and spectroscopic fits and have not been directly imaged.
  • The study also finds circumstellar debris unusually close to the star and identifies a nearby red dwarf in the system’s vicinity.
  • Researchers plan targeted observations with ESO’s Very Large Telescope and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and expect a similar dimming in about 42 to 43 years.