2008/09/11 by X. Koenig, X. P. Koenig, L. E. Allen +4
Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/593058
11 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for publication to ApJ Letters
arxiv created 2008/09/11 · openalex publication_date 2008/10/03 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
We report the discovery of four dusty cometary tails around low-mass stars in two young clusters belonging to the W5 star-forming region. Fits to the observed emission profiles from 24 μm observations with the Spitzer Space Telescope give tail lifetimes < 30 Myr, but more likely ≲ 5 Myr. This result suggests that the cometary phase is a short lived phenomenon, occurring after photoevaporation by a nearby O star has removed gas from the outer disk of a young low-mass star.