MWC 480 is a single[4] star, about 500 light-years away in the constellation of Auriga. It is located in the Taurus-Auriga Star-Forming Region.[8] The name refers to the Mount Wilson Catalog of B and A stars with bright hydrogen lines in their spectra.[9] With an apparent magnitude of 7.62,[3] it is too faint to be seen with the naked eye.
Properties
MWC 480 is a young Herbig Ae/Be star, a class of young stars with spectral types of A or B, but are quite young and are still not main-sequence stars. MWC 480 is about 7 million years old.[5] It is about twice the mass of the Sun,[5] and is estimated to be about 1.67 solar radii.[4]
MWC 480 has X-ray emissions typical of a pre-main-sequence Herbig Ae/Be star but with an order of magnitude more photoelectric absorption.[4] It has a gas-dust envelope and is surrounded by a protoplanetary disc that is about 11% the mass of the Sun.[5] The disc is inclined about 37° towards the line of sight, on a position angle of about 148°.[5] Astronomers using the ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) have found that the protoplanetary disc surrounding MWC 480 contains large amounts of methyl cyanide (CH3CN), a complex carbon-based molecule.[10] Hydrogen cyanide (HCN) has also been detected in the disc.[11] No signs of planet formation have yet been detected.
Planetary system
In 2021, an imaging of the gas flows in the circumstellar disk has suggested a presence of shrouded Jupiter-mass planet about 245 AU from the star.[12]
^ abcdefGrady, C. A.; Hamaguchi, K.; Schneider, G.; Stecklum, B.; Woodgate, B. E.; McCleary, J. E.; Williger, G. M.; Sitko, M. L.; Ménard, F.; Henning, Th.; Brittain, S.; Troutmann, M.; Donehew, B.; Hines, D.; Wisniewski, J. P.; Lynch, D. K.; Russell, R. W.; Rudy, R. J.; Day, A. N.; Shenoy, A.; Wilner, D.; Silverstone, M.; Bouret, J.-C.; Meusinger, H.; Clampin, M.; Kim, S.; Petre, R.; Sahu, M.; Endres, M.; Collins, K. A. (2010). "Locating the Accretion Footprint on a Herbig Ae Star: MWC 480". The Astrophysical Journal. 719 (2): 1565–1581. Bibcode:2010ApJ...719.1565G. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/719/2/1565. hdl:2060/20110023025.
^Teague, Richard; Bae, Jaehan; Aikawa, Yuri; Andrews, Sean M.; Bergin, Edwin A.; Bergner, Jennifer B.; Boehler, Yann; Booth, Alice S.; Bosman, Arthur D.; Cataldi, Gianni; Czekala, Ian; Guzmán, Viviana V.; Huang, Jane; Ilee, John D.; Law, Charles J.; Le Gal, Romane; Long, Feng; Loomis, Ryan A.; Ménard, François; Öberg, Karin I.; Pérez, Laura M.; Schwarz, Kamber R.; Sierra, Anibal; Walsh, Catherine; Wilner, David J.; Yamato, Yoshihide; Zhang, Ke (2021), "Molecules with ALMA at Planet-forming Scales (MAPS). XVIII. Kinematic Substructures in the Disks of HD 163296 and MWC 480", The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 257 (1): 18, arXiv:2109.06218, Bibcode:2021ApJS..257...18T, doi:10.3847/1538-4365/ac1438, S2CID237504930