Mass, gas, and Gauss around a T Tauri Star with SPIRou
Studies of young planets help us understand planet evolution and investigate important evolutionary processes such as atmospheric escape. We monitored IRAS 04125+2902, a 3 Myr-old T Tauri star with a transiting planet and a transitional disk, with the SPIRou infrared spectropolarimeter on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. Using these data, we constrained the mass and density of the Jupiter-size companion to < 0.16 M ♃ and < 0.23 g cm −3 , respectively (90% upper limits). These rule out a Jovian-like object and support the hypothesis that it is an ancestor to the numerous sub-Neptunes found around mature stars. We unambiguously detected magnetic fields at the stellar surface, small-scale fields reaching 1.5 kG and the large-scale field mostly consisting of a 0.80−0.95 kG dipole inclined by 5−15° to the rotation axis. Accretion onto the star is low and/or episodic at a maximum rate of ≃10 −11 M ⊙ yr −1 , indicating that IRAS 04125+2902 is most likely in a magnetic “propeller” regime, presumably explaining the star’s slow rotation (11.3 d). We discovered persistent Doppler-shifted absorption in a metastable He I line, clear evidence for a magnetized wind from a gaseous inner disk. Variability in absorption suggests structure in the disk wind that could reflect disk-planet interactions.
Authors
- A.W. Mann
- Madyson G. Barber (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8399-472X)
- C. Moutou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2842-3924)
- J.‐F. Donati (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5541-2887)
- P. I. Cristofari (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4019-0630)
- E. Gaidos
- L. Arnold
Publication Details
- Journal
- Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Published
- 2025-05-20
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202554628
- Citations
- 3
- Primary Topic
- Astro and Planetary Science
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 3.46
Funders
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- University of Hawai'i
- Nuclear Safety and Security Commission
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
- National Research Council Canada