Starspots on weak-lined T Tauri stars in the σ Orionis cluster

Clicks: 15
ID: 331836
2026
Free PDF
Article Quality & Performance Metrics
Overall Quality
Not rated
Combines reader engagement with the AI quality analysis. This article has not been analysed, so there is no overall score — reader engagement is measured and shown alongside.
AI Quality Assessment
Not analyzed
Readership in this journal
Emerging

Ranked #941 of 1,339 articles by views in monthly notices of the royal astronomical society

Most read Least read

Bar heights use a square-root scale. Only the 120 most-read articles are drawn; the journal has 1,339 in total.

Mint this article as an NFT
Not yet minted

Create a permanent, verifiable on-chain record of this article on the Scimatic Network. The NFT is held in your Journament account, and you can withdraw it to your own wallet at any time.

5 SUSD one-off · no wallet required
Sign in to mint
Abstract
Abstract The light curves and spectra of T Tauri stars indicate the presence of cool starspots covering large areas of their photospheres. Heavily spotted stars should have a larger mid-infrared flux than the equivalent single-temperature photospheres. To test this prediction we first fit single and two-temperature models to optical spectra of young stars in the 4 Myr-old σ Orionis cluster and a control set of older field stars. The fits to the young stars favour two temperatures while the field stars show no preference. Independent tests of our models for nine probable single K-type weak-lined T Tauri stars using infrared photometry confirms the presence of large cool components. We consider and rule out as explanations of the two temperature photospheres: binary stars for all but one WTTS; accretion, as the observed Hα equivalent width is too small; gravity darkening as the predicted temperature differences are too small. This leaves cool areas akin to starspots covering 30-95 per cent of the surface as the plausible explanation.Our results show no significant difference in the cool temperature for surface fractions between 0.30–0.75, implying a common mechanism is responsible. These cool surface fractions would lead to significant overestimates in age and mass when fitting unspotted isochrones in colour-magnitude diagrams. The dispersion in cool surface fraction could also explain the dispersion in lithium equivalent width seen in the spectra of coeval zero-age main sequence stars.
Reference Key
openalex_W7221001647 Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors Andrew J Wilson, Darryl Sergison, Tim Naylor, R. D. Jeffries
Are you one of these authors? Claim your profile
Journal monthly notices of the royal astronomical society
Year 2026
DOI
10.1093/mnras/stag1909
URL
https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stag1909
Keywords Keywords not found

Citations

No citations found. To add a citation, contact the admin at info@scimatic.org

Comments

No comments yet. Be the first to comment on this article.