Periodic Photometric Variability in the Becklin-Neugebauer Object

Abstract

The Becklin-Neugebauer (BN) object in the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC) is a well-studied optically invisible, infrared-bright young stellar object, thought to be an intermediate-mass protostar. We report here that BN exhibited nearly-sinusoidal periodic variability at the near-infrared H- and Ks-bands during a one month observing campaign in 2000 March/April. The period was 8.28 days and the peak-to-peak amplitude ~0.2 mag. Plausible mechanisms for producing the observed variability characteristics are explored.

Accepted by ApJ Letters

References in corpus (4)

• Constraints on the Stellar/Sub-stellar Mass Function in the Inner Orion Nebula Cluster
• Chandra X-ray Observatory Study of the Orion Nebula Cluster and BN/KL Region
• Rotation in the Orion Nebula Cluster
• Periodic Photometric Variability in the Becklin-Neugebauer Object

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Near-Infrared Photometric Variability of Stars Toward the Orion A Molecular Cloud
• YSOVAR: the first sensitive, wide-area, mid-IR photometric monitoring of the ONC
• The Mass Dependence of Stellar Rotation in the Orion Nebula Cluster
• 8--13 um spectroscopy of YSOs: Evolution of the silicate feature
• The Becklin-Neugebauer Object as a Runaway B Star, Ejected 4000 years ago from the theta^1C system
• Extended Near-Infrared Emission from Candidate Protostars in the Taurus-Auriga Molecular Cloud
• The Ionized Circumstellar Envelopes of Orion Source I and the Becklin Neugebauer Object
• Periodic Photometric Variability in the Becklin-Neugebauer Object