V1400 Centauri

V1400 Centauri imaged by the Dark Energy Survey
Observation data Epoch J2000      Equinox J2000
Constellation	Centaurus
Right ascension	14h 07m 47.92976s[1]
Declination	−39° 45′ 42.7671″[1]
Apparent magnitude (V)	12.2–15.6[2]
Characteristics
Evolutionary stage	Pre-main sequence[3]
Spectral type	K5 IVe Li[3][4]
Variable type	rotational T Tau and eclipsing[2]
Astrometry
Radial velocity (Rv)	5.904±0.151[4] km/s
Proper motion (μ)	RA: −23.108±0.015 mas/yr[1] Dec.: −21.048±0.017 mas/yr[1]
Parallax (π)	7.2351 ± 0.0140 mas[1]
Distance	450.8 ± 0.9 ly (138.2 ± 0.3 pc)
Details
Mass	0.977+0.023 −0.045[5] M☉
Radius	1.0661+0.0062 −0.0139[6] R☉
Luminosity	0.3431+0.0067 −0.0064[6] L☉
Surface gravity (log g)	4.302+0.0243 −0.0243[6] cgs
Temperature	4343+24 −29[6] K
Metallicity [Fe/H]	−0.1903+0.0448 −0.0422[6] dex
Rotation	3.206±0.002 d[7]: 6 [a]
Rotational velocity (v sin i)	14.6±0.4[8] km/s
Age	~16[3] or 21.38+4.30 −7.60[9]: 2  Myr
Other designations
V1400 Cen, GSC 07807-00004, 2MASS J14074792–3945427, WISE J140747.91–394542.9, 1SWASP J140747.93–394542.6, ASAS J140748–3945.7[4]
Database references
SIMBAD	data

V1400 Centauri, also known as 1SWASP J140747.93−394542.6 or simply J1407, is a young, pre-main-sequence star that was eclipsed by the likely free-floating substellar object J1407b in April–June 2007. With an age around 20 million years, the star is about as massive as the Sun and is located in the constellation Centaurus at a distance of 451 light-years away from the Sun. V1400 Centauri is a member of Upper Centaurus–Lupus subgroup of the Scorpius–Centaurus association, a group of young, comoving stars close to the Sun.

The star has been catalogued in as early as the 1990s by the Hubble Guide Star Catalog, which identified the star and measured its position in a pair of photographic plates taken in 1974 and 1979.^[10] The star has been catalogued by other sky surveys, including the All Sky Automated Survey (ASAS), Two Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS), Super Wide Angle Search for Planets (1SWASP), and the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE).^[4] Typically in these catalogues, the star is given designations such as 1SWASP J140747.93–394542.6, which comprises the survey name followed by the star's location in equatorial coordinates.^[4] As such designations can be unwieldy, researchers simply call the star "J1407".^{[3]: 5 [11]} The star was given the official variable star designation V1400 Centauri in 2015, when it was added to the International Astronomical Union's General Catalogue of Variable Stars.^[12] A 2018 research paper on stars with unusual dimming periods nicknamed V1400 Centauri "Mamajek's Object", after the astronomer Eric Mamajek who identified the star's unusual dimming in 2007.^[13]

V1400 Centauri

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Location of V1400 Centauri in the constellation Centaurus

V1400 Centauri is located in the constellation Centaurus, about 40 degrees south of the celestial equator.^[4] The most recent parallax measurements by the Gaia spacecraft indicate V1400 Centauri is located 450.8 ± 0.9 light-years (138.2 ± 0.3 parsecs) from the Sun.^[1] Observations of V1400 Centauri's position over time have shown that it has a southwestward^[b] proper motion consistent with that of the Scorpius–Centaurus association, an OB association of young stars with ages between 11–17 million years and distances between 380–470 ly (118–145 pc) from the Sun.^[3]: 4 The Scorpius–Centaurus association is the nearest OB association to the Sun, and is believed to have formed out of a molecular cloud that has since been blown away by the stellar winds of the association's most massive stars.^{[14]: 236, 250}

V1400 Centauri is closest to the Upper Centaurus–Lupus subgroup of the Scorpius–Centaurus association, which has an age range of 14–18 million years and distance range of 380–460 ly (115–141 pc).^[3]: 5-6 Given V1400 Centauri's similar distance and proper motion, it very likely belongs to the Scorpius–Centaurus association, which would mean it must be a young star within the age range of the Upper Centaurus–Lupus subgroup.^[3]: 5-6 A 2012 estimate of V1400 Centauri's age assumes it is equal to 16 million years,^[3]: 6 the mean age of the Upper Centaurus–Lupus subgroup, while a 2018 estimate from Gaia measurements puts the star's age at 21.38+4.30
−7.60 million years.^[9]: 2

V1400 Centauri is a pre-main sequence star of spectral class K5 IVe Li.^[4][3]: 5 "K" means V1400 Centauri is an orange K-type star, and the adjoining number "5" ranks V1400 Centauri's relative temperature on a scale of 9 (coolest) to 0 (hottest) for K-type stars. V1400 Centauri is given the subgiant luminosity class "IV", because it has a brighter luminosity than K-type main-sequence stars (luminosity class V).^{[3]: 5 [c]} The letter "e" indicates V1400 Centauri exhibits weak hydrogen-alpha emission lines in its visible light spectrum.^[3]: 5 Lastly, "Li" indicates V1400 Centauri is abundant in lithium.^[3]: 5

Measurements from the Gaia spacecraft's third and most recent data release (Gaia DR3) indicate V1400 Centauri is about 7% larger than the Sun in radius (1.07 R_☉; 740,000 km; 460,000 mi),^[6] but is slightly less massive than the Sun.^[5][9]: 2 Depending on whether magnetic effects are taken into account in V1400 Centauri's stellar evolution or not, the star's mass could be either 0.98 M_☉ or 0.89 M_☉, respectively.^[5]: 4 Young stars tend to be magnetically active,^[15] and neglecting their magnetic effects results in an underestimation of their mass.^{[5]: 4, 9} An older estimate of V1400 Centauri's mass from Gaia's second data release (Gaia DR2) in 2018 gives 0.95 M_☉, but does not take magnetic effects into account.^[9]: 2

V1400 Centauri is cooler and less luminous than the Sun, with an effective temperature of about 4,300 K (4,030 °C; 7,280 °F) and a luminosity about 34% that of the Sun.^[6] V1400 Centauri has an estimated surface gravity of about 200 m/s² (over 20 times the gravity of Earth), based on Gaia measurements of the star's brightness, distance, and color.^[1][d] Gaia measurements also indicate V1400 Centauri has a lower metallicity than the Sun.^[1][e] Viewed from Earth, V1400 Centauri appears marginally redder than a typical K5-type star due to light extinction by interstellar dust between Earth and the star.^[f] The star does not exhibit excess thermal emission in near- and mid-infrared wavelengths and lacks strong emission lines in its spectrum, which indicates it lacks a substantial accretion disk or protoplanetary disk.^[3]: 10

Like most young stars, V1400 Centauri rotates rapidly with a rotation period of approximately 3.2 days.^[3]: 8 The rapid rotation of V1400 Centauri strengthens its magnetic field via the dynamo process, which leads to the formation of starspots on its surface.^[7]: 6 As V1400 Centauri rotates, its starspots come into and out of view, causing the star's brightness to periodically fluctuate by 5%, or about 0.1 magnitudes in amplitude.^[7]: 2 The star's rotation period varies by 0.02 days over a 5.4-year-long magnetic activity cycle, due to the long-term movement of starspots across the star's differentially rotating surface.^{[7]: 6 [16]: 2847} V1400 Centauri is known to emit soft X-rays^[3]: 8 due to its corona being heated by its rotationally-strengthened magnetic field.^[17] Because of its young age, starspot variability, and lack of dust accretion, V1400 Centauri is classified as a weak-lined T Tauri variable.^{[8]: 412 [2]}

Spectroscopic measurements of Doppler broadening in V1400 Centauri's spectral absorption lines indicate the star has a projected rotational velocity of 14.6±0.4 km/s.^{[8]: 415–416} Given V1400 Centauri's rotation period, radius, and temperature, the star's true equatorial rotation velocity is 15.7±1.7 km/s,^[8]: 418 which indicates that the star's rotation axis is inclined 68°±10° with respect to Earth's line of sight.^[8]: 419

Visual-band light curve of V1400 Centauri, showing the 2007 eclipse. The main plot shows the SuperWASP data.^[18] The inset plot, adapted from Mamajek et al.,^[3] shows the data near mid-eclipse. The purple markers show the pairs of small brightness dips due to eclipses by rings.

Simulation of J1407b eclipsing V1400 Centauri during 2007. The light curve plot below illustrates V1400 Centauri's brightness changes during the eclipse. The ring structure of J1407b and the orange light curve represents a best-fit model to SuperWASP's photometric data, which are shown in yellow points.

During 7 April to 4 June 2007,^[g] telescopes of the Super Wide Angle Search for Planets (SuperWASP) and All Sky Automated Survey (ASAS) projects recorded V1400 Centauri undergoing a series of significant dimming events for 56 days.^[7] The pattern of these dimming events was complex yet nearly symmetrical, indicating they were caused by an opaque, disk-like structure eclipsing the star.^[3]: 5 The object that eclipsed V1400 Centauri is now known as J1407b, a substellar object surrounded by a dusty circumplanetary disk about 90 million kilometers (56 million miles) in radius.

V1400 Centauri's eclipse by J1407b was discovered on 3 December 2010 by Mark Pecaut,^[3]: 5 who was a graduate student of Eric E. Mamajek at the University of Rochester.^[20] Mamajek, Pecaut, and collaborators announced the discovery in 2012.^[20] Mamajek's team initially hypothesized that J1407b is a ringed exoplanet or brown dwarf orbiting the star,^[3]: 8 but that has since been disfavored by later studies. V1400 Centauri does not show repeating eclipses, telescope observations showed no orbiting companions, and the disk of J1407b would be unstable if it orbited the star, which suggests that J1407b likely does not orbit V1400 Centauri and is instead a free-floating object that coincidentally passed in front of the star.^[11]: 2 In this case, J1407b's coincidental eclipse of V1400 Centauri would be considered an extremely rare event that will never happen again.^{[21]: 9 [20]}

High-resolution imaging by the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) in 2017 revealed a single object near V1400 Centauri, which might be J1407b. The object's distance from V1400 Centauri appears to match the expected distance travelled by J1407b if it was a free-floating object. The object's brightness is suggestive of a dusty circumplanetary disk surrounding a planetary-mass object below 6 Jupiter masses. However, the object has only been observed by ALMA once, so it is not yet known whether it is a moving foreground object or a stationary background galaxy.^[11] Recent observations by ALMA in June and July 2024 will confirm whether this object is J1407b or not.^[22]

• List of transiting circumsecondary disks
• List of stars that have unusual dimming periods

Wikimedia Commons has media related to V1400 Centauri.

• Eric Mamajek's webpage at University of Rochester
• Matthew Kenworthy's webpage on J1407b
• Rings around another world may have been sculpted by exomoons, Ruth Angus, Astrobites, 5 February 2015.