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Paper: |
Mid-Infrared Variation in Young Stars |
Volume: |
448, 16th Cambridge Workshop on Cool Stars, Stellar Systems, and the Sun |
Page: |
5 |
Authors: |
Rebull, L. M. |
Abstract: |
Since 2003, the Spitzer Space Telescope has provided groundbreaking
views of Galactic star formation in bands from 3.6 past 24 microns.
During the cryogenic mission (the first 5.5 years), variability of
young stars at these bands was noted, although typically with just a
few epochs of observation. The cryogen ran out in 2009, and we are now
in the warm mission era where the shortest two bands (3.6 and 4.5
microns) continue to function essentially as before. The phenomenal
sensitivity and stability of Spitzer at these bands has enabled
several dedicated monitoring programs studying the variability of
young stars at timescales from minutes to years. The largest of these
programs is YSOVAR (Stauffer et al.), but there are several smaller
programs as well. With at least as many as 2200 young star light
curves likely to come out of this, these programs as a whole enable
more detailed study of the young star-disk interaction in the infrared
for a wider range of ages and masses than has ever been accomplished
before. Early results suggest a wide variety of sources of
variability, including dust clouds in the disk, disk warps, star
spots, and accretion. This contribution will review some of the most
recent results from these programs. |
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