Bibcode
Alonso, R.; Rappaport, S.; Deeg, H. J.; Palle, E.
Bibliographical reference
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 589, id.L6, 7 pp.
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4
2016
Journal
Citations
36
Refereed citations
34
Description
We have observed several relatively deep transits of the white dwarf WD
1145+017 with the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) in the wavelength range
480 to 920 nm. The observations covered approximately one hour on 2016
January 18 and two hours on 2016 January 20. There was variable
extinction of the white dwarf during much of that time, but this
extinction was punctuated by four sharp transits with depths ranging
from 25% to 40%. The spectrum was dispersed with a grism and the flux
data were ultimately summed into four bands centered at 0.53, 0.62,
0.71, and 0.84 μm. After careful normalization, we find that the flux
light curves in all four bands are consistently the same, including
through the deepest dips. We use these results to compute
Ångström exponents, α, for the particles responsible
for the extinction and find |⟨ α ⟩| ≲ 0.06,
assuming that the extinction is relatively optically thin. We use the
complex indices of refraction for common minerals to set constraints on
the median sizes of possible dust grains and find that particle sizes
≲0.5 μm can be excluded for most common minerals.
Based on observations made with the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), on
the island of La Palma at the Spanish Observatorio Roque de los
Muchachos of the IAC, and with the IAC80 telescope on the island of
Tenerife at the Spanish Observatorio del Teide of the IAC, under
Director's discretionary time.