Planet shattered? The Tess detector spotted suspicious targets

The star 400799224 surrounded by a mysterious object capable of swallowing clouds and spitting fog, it may not be any known celestial body, and its behavior is difficult to understand.

Visible and infrared images of the 400799224 of the star (at the center cross). The width of the screen is 1.86 arc minutes. Powell et al

Brian P. Powell of the Goddard Space Flight Center and his team used machine learning algorithms to find in the database (TIC) of the TESS probe (TIC) that a star numbered 400799224 periodically declines in brightness and then undergoes strange flickers.

400799224 every drop in brightness and flicker has a definite masking feature. Brightness drops by up to a quarter, with a period of 19.77 days. However, the form, extent, and duration of masking vary. There are significant differences from planetary transits.

The researchers believe that 400799224 could be a pair of binary stars of similar brightness. The projection distance of the two stars is about 300 astronomical units. The decrease in brightness is related to one of the stars, but it is not known which star it is.

Comparisons with data obtained by other observational devices, as well as statistical analysis, show that only one-fifth to one-third of the masking produces a perceptible drop in brightness. This means that it is more likely that the mask will be a non-continuous ejection of dust clouds. These dust clouds are able to obscure 37% or 75% of the light of the host star.

The researchers believe that this phenomenon may be caused by a large asteroid or small planet in disintegration. However, more data is needed to confirm this finding.

The TESS probe, which aims to use the transit method to search for small extrasolar planets around the solar system, has found nearly two hundred so far, with nearly five thousand more to be confirmed. It also built a database (TIC) covering more than 1 billion suspicious targets, 400799224 is one of them.

reference

Mysterious Dust-emitting Object Orbiting TIC 400799224

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/ac2c81