UU Aurigae is a carbon star in the constellation

Auriga AURIGA (''Antenna Ultracriogenica Risonante per l'Indagine Gravitazionale Astronomica'') is an ultracryogenic resonant bar gravitational wave detector in Italy. It is at the Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro of the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nuclea ...

. It is approximately from

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

Description

UU Aurigae is a carbon-rich asymptotic giant branch star. The spectral type listed in the

General Catalogue of Variable Stars The General Catalogue of Variable Stars (GCVS) is a list of variable stars. Its first edition, containing 10,820 stars, was published in 1948 by the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and edited by B. V. Kukarkin and P. P. Parenago. Second and thi ...

(GCVS) is C5,3-C7,4(N3). The N3 refers back to an older type of classification where carbon stars were given spectral types of N or R, although the numeric index was correlated more with the strength of the carbon chemistry rather than temperature. The C5 to C7 indicates various classifications using the newer Morgan-Keenan system where the numeric index corresponds better to the temperature of the star. C5 to C7 types are approximately equivalent to early-

M star In astronomy, stellar classification is the classification of stars based on their spectral characteristics. Electromagnetic radiation from the star is analyzed by splitting it with a prism or diffraction grating into a spectrum exhibiting the ...

s. The second numeric index, 3 or 4 for UU Aurigae indicates the strength of the

Swan band Swan bands are a characteristic of the spectra of carbon stars, comets and of burning hydrocarbon fuels. They are named for the Scottish physicist William Swan, who first studied the spectral analysis of radical diatomic carbon (C2) in 1856. S ...

s in the spectrum, on a scale of 1 to 5. Using the more modern revised Morgan-Keenan scheme, a spectral type of C-N5- C2 6- has been published, with the C-N5 indicating an N-type carbon star with a temperature index of 5-, and a Swan band strength of 6- on a scale of 1 to 8. UUAurLightCurve

UU Aurigae is classified as a

semiregular variable In astronomy, a semiregular variable star, a type of variable star, is a giant or supergiant of intermediate and late (cooler) spectral type showing considerable periodicity in its light changes, accompanied or sometimes interrupted by various irre ...

of type SRb, indicating it is a

giant star A giant star is a star with substantially larger radius and luminosity than a main-sequence (or ''dwarf'') star of the same surface temperature.Giant star, entry in ''Astronomy Encyclopedia'', ed. Patrick Moore, New York: Oxford University Press ...

with poorly defined variations. Its brightness varies from magnitude +4.9 to +7.0 in visual

apparent magnitude Apparent magnitude () is a measure of the brightness of a star or other astronomical object observed from Earth. An object's apparent magnitude depends on its intrinsic luminosity, its distance from Earth, and any extinction of the object's ...

. The period is given in the GCVS as 441 days, but there is also a strong variation with a period of 235 days. Using

British Astronomical Association The British Astronomical Association (BAA) was formed in 1890 as a national body to support the UK's amateur astronomers. Throughout its history, the BAA has encouraged observers to make scientifically valuable observations, often in collaborati ...

observations from 1971 to 1998, the periods are calculated as 439.4 and 233.1 days. The angular diameter of UU Aurigae has been measured at 12.07 ± 0.22 mas using

very-long-baseline interferometry Very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) is a type of astronomical interferometer, astronomical interferometry used in radio astronomy. In VLBI a signal from an astronomical radio source, such as a quasar, is collected at multiple radio telesco ...

(VLBI). Around the star is a shell of dust made up largely of

amorphous carbon Amorphous carbon is free, reactive carbon that has no crystalline structure. Amorphous carbon materials may be stabilized by terminating dangling-π bonds with hydrogen. As with other amorphous solids, some short-range order can be observed. Amor ...

and

silicon carbide Silicon carbide (SiC), also known as carborundum (), is a hard chemical compound containing silicon and carbon. A semiconductor, it occurs in nature as the extremely rare mineral moissanite, but has been mass-produced as a powder and crystal s ...

(SiC), with the SiC appearing at three times the star's radius and the amorphous carbon at nine times its radius. Further out is a carbon-rich shell at 300 stellar radii and two oxygen-rich shells even further away. UU Aurigae also has a

bow shock In astrophysics, a bow shock occurs when the magnetosphere of an astrophysical object interacts with the nearby flowing ambient plasma such as the solar wind. For Earth and other magnetized planets, it is the boundary at which the speed of th ...

0.14 parsec wide, created by its motion through the interstellar medium.

References

External links

HR 2405

CCDM J06365+3827

Image UU Aurigae
{{DEFAULTSORT:UU Aurigae 046687 031579 Auriga (constellation) Semiregular variable stars Carbon stars Aurigae, UU Asymptotic-giant-branch stars 2405 Durchmusterung objects