The History of the Mysterious Eclipses of KH 15D: Asiago Observatory, 1967-1982

Abstract

We are gathering archival observations to determine the photometric history of the unique and unexplained eclipses of the pre-main-sequence star KH 15D. Here we present a light curve from 1967-1982, based on photographic plates from Asiago Observatory. During this time, the system alternated periodically between bright and faint states, as observed today. However, the bright state was 0.9 mag brighter than the modern value, and the fractional variation between bright and faint states (Delta I = 0.7 mag) was smaller than observed today (3.5 mag). A possible explanation for these findings is that the system contains a second star that was previously blended with the eclipsing star, but is now completely obscured.

arXiv commentAccepted to AJ. 24 pages, 10 figures, 2 tables. v2: Phase error corrected in figures 8 and 10

References in corpus (6)

• Eclipses by a Circumstellar Dust Feature in the Pre-Main Sequence Star KH15D
• Fine Structure in the Circumstellar Environment of a Young, Solar-like Star: the Unique Eclipses of KH 15D
• Natural Coronagraphic Observations of the Eclipsing T Tauri System KH 15D: Evidence for Accretion and Bipolar Outflow in a WTTS
• Spectropolarimetry and Modeling of the Eclipsing T Tauri Star KH 15D
• Limits on eclipses of the pre-main-sequence star KH 15D in the first half of the 20th century
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