T Tauri

StarDate

An embryonic star may be about to vanish – perhaps for a century. It’s not going anywhere. Instead, it’ll be cloaked by a dense cloud that encircles two companions.

T Tauri is the prototype for a class of proto-stars. The gravity of such a star is causing it to collapse, making it hot and bright. But its core isn’t hot enough to ignite the fires of nuclear fusion, so it’s not yet a true star.

The star we see as T Tauri is about twice as massive as the Sun. It’s encircled by a disk of gas and dust – the raw materials for making planets. And it might already have given birth to at least one planet.

T Tauri is a member of a triple-star system. Its companion stars are close together, encircled by their own disk. It’s so thick that it hides the stars at visible wavelengths – we see them only in the infrared.

Now, the companions and their disk are starting to slide between us and the brighter star. The star has faded a good bit in recent years. Eventually, it may be hidden behind the disk as well. And it could take a century for the disk to move out of the way – allowing the brightest star of the T Tauri system to shine through once more.

Taurus is low in the east and southeast by late evening. T Tauri is just above Aldebaran, the bull’s brightest star, far to the lower left of the bright Moon. The young star is visible through a telescope – for now.

More about the Moon and the bull tomorrow.

Script by Damond Benningfield