DG Tauri

DG Tauri

An artist's conception of DG Tauri, showing the star, disk and jet.
Observation data
Epoch J2000      Equinox J2000
Constellation Taurus
Right ascension 04h 27m 04.6921s
Declination 26° 06 16.0602
Characteristics
Spectral type K7
Variable type T Tau
Astrometry
Radial velocity (Rv)5.5 km/s
Proper motion (μ) RA: +5.514 mas/yr
Dec.: −20.478 mas/yr
Parallax (π)7.9836±0.1182 mas
Distance409 ± 6 ly
(125 ± 2 pc)
Details
Mass0.70 M
Radius1.9 R
Luminosity0.26 L
Surface gravity (log g)3.20 cgs
Temperature4,000 K
Metallicity [Fe/H]−1.49 dex
Rotation6.3 days
Rotational velocity (v sin i)26.9 km/s
Age1 Myr
Other designations
2MASS J04270469+2606163, IRAS 04240+2559, Gaia DR3 151262700852297728, TIC 268017134, AAVSO 0420+25B, HH 158
Database references
SIMBADdata

DG Tauri is a young star about 400 light years from the Earth. It is a T Tauri-type variable star, ranging in brightness from magnitude 10.5 to 14.9 (in blue light), making it far too faint to be seen with the naked eye.

DG Tauri is located in the Taurus molecular cloud. The star is close enough to the ecliptic to be occasionally occulted by the Moon, and observations of those events have shown that DG Tauri is a single star, although it may be part of a wide binary with DG Tauri B.

The region around DG Tauri contains a variety of the structures associated with stars and planetary systems in the process of formation. In 1983, an optically visible jet extending up to 20 arc seconds (about 2500 AU) from the star was detected. The detection of continuum emission from a circumstellar disk was announced in 1989. In 2022 a study was published showing that a streamer of gas is accreting onto the circumstellar disk.