Disk Detective Talk

Good candidate or not?

  • biggsjrex by biggsjrex moderator

    I have the same question as previous classifiers. This star is clearly extended in WISE 4, but otherwise looks like a good candidate. is it appropriate to classify this as a good candidate, or should it be rejected as extended?

    Posted

  • voyager1682002 by voyager1682002 moderator

    I will classify it as "Extended beyond circle in WISE images" instead of "None of the above/Good candidate"

    Posted

  • anoxie by anoxie

    Good question. I've classified this one as #goodcandidate because i did not know for sure but i'd say it's contaminated by dust.

    There is a blob of dust ( ~ 20 - 30 arcsec around this star ) in WISE 4, maybe responsible for the excess. There is a large cloud 4 - 5 arcmin down, is it the same one heated up around this bright star or just a coincidence?

    BTW, i've read a comment by a scientist warning bright stars could be extended at WISE 4. I guess this worked fine as long as you were looking at the first batch of stars with basically no external conatmination.

    Posted

  • jdebes by jdebes scientist, admin

    This is clearly extended. It is probably a star superimposed on a dust cloud (sometimes called interstellar cirrus). These can masquerade as debris disks especially if the star itself is embedded in this optically thin cirrus and creates a reflection nebula (much like some images you see of the Pleiades). The scattered light, and heating from the star will make a lot of little dust far, far away from the star look like warm dust in a debris disk close to the star. Also, if you look at the IRSA finder chart service and zoom way out, you see an increased W3 and W4 background that extends to large distances.

    Posted

  • anoxie by anoxie

    This is obviously extended (and i guess biggsjrex, TED91 think so) but similar objects have been included in the spring follow up list:

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    The question is: if we don't have any feedback, how do we know whether such objects should still be included in the next follow up?

    Posted