The star T Tauri, located 471 light years away in the Taurus constellation, is about to experience a “great dimming” that could last up to a century. This is because a disk of gas and dust is moving in front of it, from our perspective.
Astronomers have been tracking T Tauri’s brightness variations for decades. However, in 2016 and again in 2022-2023, the star dimmed significantly, which had not been seen in more than a century, according to the specialized site Space.com.
In the T Tauri triple system, only one of the stars, called T Tauri North, can be seen through an optical telescope. Its companions, known as T Tauri South A and B, form a binary system that is located 100 astronomical units (14.9 billion kilometers) from the main star and orbits T Tauri North once every 4,600 years.. The binary system is hidden in the center of a thick, dusty disk of gas. In fact, the dust on the disk is so impenetrable that T Tauri Sur A and B are only visible in infrared light, which can pass through the dust with little attenuation.
Hind Nebula and T Tauri – part of a class of stars that vary in brightness as they absorb clouds of dust from which they were born. pic.twitter.com/1eTOqvfi2o
—Andrew Rader (@marsrader)
March 9, 2017
But now, T Tauri South’s orbit is placing the disk in front of the visible star T Tauri North from our perspective, and astronomers are starting to see the result of this.
The great dimming of T Tauri is caused by the orbit of the T Tauri South binary system, which is hidden in the center of a thick, dusty disk of gas. The disk’s dust is so impenetrable that it is only visible in infrared light.
Astronomers are eager to study this phenomenon and learn more about the star T Tauri and its behavior. The great T Tauri dimming is a rare event and exciting that could provide new opportunities for astronomical research.
