Events
THE PLANET-SWALLOWING MODEL FOR THE ERUPTION OF V838 MON
00:00 28-05-2006
We present an innovative way to detect planets. There is a new group of stars that have peculiar outbursts whose nature is still under debate. The prototype of this class of stars is V838 Mon, which had an extraordinary outburst in 2002. The optical light curve showed at least three peaks and imaging revealed a spectacular light echo around the source. Spectral analysis suggested that the object was relatively cold throughout the event, which was characterized by an expansion to huge radii. We propose that the outburst was caused by the expansion of a giant star, followed by the successive swallo- wing of three Jupiter-like planets. Alternatively, the peaks in the light curve represent three steps in the final destruction process of a single planet. We used three different methods to estimate the consumption location of the planets. There is a nice agreement betw- een the values obtained from the luminosities of the peaks, from their rise time scale and from the Roche lobe geometry. The conclus- ion drawn from the model is that the planets were stopped at a typi- cal distance of one solar radius from the center of the host giant star. The planets-capture model supplies a simple explanation to all observed peculiarities of this intriguing star and similar objects. Finally, we propose that the long secondary periods, which are obse- rved in red giant stars, are formed by planets that orbit the atmos- pheres of their host stars. This model implies that planets have already been observed several decades ago.
