Butterfly Star

Butterfly Star

The Butterfly Star imaged by the James Webb Space Telescope
Observation data
Epoch J2000      Equinox ICRS
Constellation Taurus
Right ascension 04h 33m 16.50096s
Declination +22° 53′ 20.4000″
Characteristics
Evolutionary stage young stellar object
Apparent magnitude (J) 14.682±0.059
Apparent magnitude (H) 12.900±0.060
Apparent magnitude (K) 11.718±0.048
Astrometry
Radial velocity (Rv)832.2±0.2 km/s
Distance~520 ly
(~160 pc)
Details
Mass1.6±0.4 M☉
Other designations
Butterfly Star, EPIC 247590222, IRAS 04302+2247, 2MASS J04331650+2253204
Database references
SIMBADdata

The Butterfly Star, often called by its designation IRAS 04302+2247, is a young stellar object in the constellation Taurus, near the dark nebula LDN 1536b in the Taurus molecular cloud. Classified as a class I protostar, it is surrounded by an edge-on protoplanetary disk and a bipolar reflection nebula that resembles the wings of a butterfly; the star itself is obscured by the disk.

The Butterfly Star imaged by the James Webb Space Telescope

This object was first catalogued in 1990 by the IRAS satellite. Its discovery was announced in 1997, when it was nicknamed the "Butterfly star in Taurus" due to the appearance of its surrounding nebula. The name Butterfly Star has been used in subsequent studies and was officially approved by the IAU Working Group on Star Names on 13 June 2026.

The Butterfly Star's circumstellar disk is seen nearly edge-on, with an inclination of 87° to the plane of the sky. The gas disk has a radius of 3.9″ (620 au), while the dust disk is smaller with a radius of 310 au. An inner, potentially planet-forming region of the disk is within ≲80–120 au. The disk is thought to have a total mass of 0.07 M☉. The central star is likely a T Tauri star.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "IAU Catalog of Star Names". Retrieved 21 June 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "IRAS 04302+2247". SIMBAD. Centre de données astronomiques de Strasbourg. Retrieved 21 June 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 Lin, Zhe-Yu Daniel; Li, Zhi-Yun; et al. (July 2023). "Early Planet Formation in Embedded Disks (eDisk). II. Limited Dust Settling and Prominent Snow Surfaces in the Edge-on Class I Disk IRAS 04302+2247". The Astrophysical Journal. 951 (1): 9. arXiv:2306.15423. Bibcode:2023ApJ...951....9L. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/acd5c9. ISSN 0004-637X.
  4. 1 2 3 Wolf, Sebastian; Padgett, Deborah L.; Stapelfeldt, Karl R. (May 2003). "The Circumstellar Disk of the Butterfly Star in Taurus". The Astrophysical Journal. 588 (1): 373–386. arXiv:astro-ph/0301335. Bibcode:2003ApJ...588..373W. doi:10.1086/374041. ISSN 0004-637X.
  5. 1 2 "Dusty wisps round a dusty disc". esawebb.org. 29 August 2025. Retrieved 21 June 2026.
  6. ↑ Kenyon, Scott J.; Hartmann, Lee W.; et al. (March 1990). "An IRAS survey of the Taurus-Auriga molecular cloud". The Astronomical Journal. 99: 869. Bibcode:1990AJ.....99..869K. doi:10.1086/115380.
  7. ↑ Lucas, Philip; Roche, Patrick F. (February 1997). IRAS 04302+2247: Butterfly star in Taurus!. The seventh astrophysical conference: Star formation, near and far. AIP Conference Proceedings. Vol. 393. pp. 125–128. Bibcode:1997AIPC..393..125L. doi:10.1063/1.52737.
  8. ↑ Lucas, P. W.; Roche, P. F. (April 1997). "Butterfly star in Taurus: structures of young stellar objects". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 286 (4): 895–919. Bibcode:1997MNRAS.286..895L. doi:10.1093/mnras/286.4.895. ISSN 0035-8711.
  9. ↑ Gräfe, C.; Wolf, S.; et al. (May 2013). "Vertical settling and radial segregation of large dust grains in the circumstellar disk of the Butterfly Star". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 553: A69. arXiv:1303.6499. Bibcode:2013A&A...553A..69G. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201220720. ISSN 0004-6361.
  10. ↑ Wolf, S.; Schegerer, A.; et al. (February 2008). "Submillimeter Structure of the Disk of the Butterfly Star". The Astrophysical Journal. 674 (2): L101–L104. arXiv:0801.1422. Bibcode:2008ApJ...674L.101W. doi:10.1086/529188. ISSN 0004-637X.

Further reading