A&A 546, A92 (2012) Astronomy DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201118725 & c ESO 2012 Astrophysics The discovery of a shell-like event in the O-type star HD 120678,, (Research Note) R. Gamen1,,J.I.Arias2,†,R.H.Barbá2,3,†, N. I. Morrell4,†,N.R.Walborn5,A.Sota6, J. Maíz Apellániz6,‡,andE.J.Alfaro6 1 Instituto de Astrofísica de La Plata (CONICET) and Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Paseo del Bosque s/n, B1900FWA, La Plata, Argentina e-mail: [email protected] 2 Departamento de Física, Universidad de La Serena, Cisternas 1200 Norte, La Serena, Chile 3 Instituto de Ciencias Astronómicas, de la Tierra y del Espacio (ICATE-CONICET), Avda España 1512 Sur, J5402DSP, San Juan, Argentina 4 Las Campanas Observatory, Carnegie Observatories, Casilla 601, La Serena, Chile 5 Space Telescope Science Institute,‡, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA 6 Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía-CSIC, Glorieta de la Astronomía s/n, 18008, Granada, Spain Received 22 December 2011 / Accepted 4 September 2012 ABSTRACT Aims. We report the detection of a shell-like event in the Oe-type star HD 120678. Methods. HD 120678 has been intensively observed as part of a high-resolution spectroscopic monitoring program of southern Galactic O stars and Wolf-Rayet stars of the nitrogen sequence. Results. An optical spectrogram of HD 120678 obtained in June 2008 shows strong H and He i absorption lines instead of the double-peaked emission profiles observed both previously and subsequently, as well as a variety of previously undetected absorption features, mainly of O ii,Siiii and Fe iii. Photometric data reveal that the development of the absorption spectrum coincided with a remarkable dip in the V-band lightcurve. The “shell phase” of HD 120678 did not persist for very long: the V magnitude recovered its previous average value in fewer than 120 days, whereas H and He emission lines became detectable one year later. Similar spectral variations have been observed in a few Be stars, and they are usually interpreted as changes in the circumstellar disk. Key words. binaries: spectroscopic – stars: early-type – stars: emission-line, Be – stars: individual: HD 120678 1. Introduction program is the detection of radial-velocity and/or line-profile variations in the observed sample. Our OWN survey is coordi- An intensive, high-resolution spectroscopic monitoring program nated with the GOS Spectroscopic Survey (GOSSS), which aims of southern Galactic O and Wolf-Rayet stars of the nitrogen at observing all the stars in the GOSC, at intermediate resolution sequence (WN), designated the OWN Survey, is being carried (Sota et al. 2011; Maíz Apellániz et al. 2011). out (Barbá et al. 2010). This observational campaign includes One of the targets of the OWN Survey is HD 120678 nearly all stars listed in the Galactic O-Star Catalogue (GOSC; (CPD -62 3703), a bright (V= 7.9 mag) Galactic field star clas- Maíz Apellániz et al. 2004), as well as the WN stars cataloged in sified as O8 III:nep (Garrison et al. 1977). Oe stars represent van der Hucht (2001, 2006), that are accessible from the south- the extension of the Be phenomenon to the O-type range. The ern hemisphere and bright enough to be observed at high resolu- spectra of these stars are fundamentally characterized by emis- tion with 2-m class telescopes. The main goal of this long-term sion in the Balmer series lines. Emission lines of He i and Fe ii, often with double-peaked morphology, are also detectable. Based on observations collected at the Complejo Astronómico Simultaneously, He ii and other high-ionization lines, such as El Leoncito (CASLEO), the Las Campanas Observatory, and the N iii and Si iv, are observed in absorption. Since the Be phe- European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern nomenon tends to become very rare for spectral types earlier Hemisphere (proposals: 079.D-0564, 086.D-0997, and 087.D-0946). than O9.5 (Negueruela et al. 2004), the few known Oe stars Table 2 and Fig. 4 are available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.org deserve detailed investigation, as they could provide important Reduced spectra is available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to constraints on the physical mechanism generating the emission cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via lines of these stars. http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/546/A92 We recall here some milestones in the knowledge about Visiting Astronomer, Las Campanas Observatory, Chile and HD 120678: Serkowski (1968) reported that this star is in- CASLEO, Argentina. trinsically polarized; Strohmeier (1972) found light variability; † Visiting Astronomer, Las Campanas and La Silla Observatories, Whittet & van Breda (1978) detected a large infrared excess; and Chile. Meyer & Savage (1981) found peculiar UV extinction parame- ‡ Operated by AURA, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5-2655. ters. Finally, using IUE data, Massa et al. (1983) found that its Article published by EDP Sciences A92, page 1 of 7 A&A 546, A92 (2012) Table 1. Details of the spectroscopic data used in this work. 3. Results 3.1. Description of the spectroscopic event Date n Instr. Configuration Observat. R Sp. Range [Å] May-06 1 Echelle-REOSC, 2.15-m CASLEO 15 000 3600-6100 The optical spectrum of HD 120678 is usually dominated by May-06 1 Echelle, 2.5-m LCO 40 000 3450–9850 emission lines of H, He i and Fe ii. Emission lines of the Balmer Jul-06 1 Echelle, 2.5-m LCO 40 000 3450–9850 and the Paschen series are seen to very high levels, i.e., from Aug-06 1 MIKE, 6.5-m LCO 33 000 3330–9400 Hα to at least H20, and from Pa10 to Pa23, respectively. A rich Apr-07 2 Echelle-REOSC, 2.15-m CASLEO 15 000 3600–6100 emission spectrum of metallic lines, including ions such as Fe ii, May-07 1 FEROS, 2.2-m La Silla 46 000 3570–9210 Mg i-ii,Siii,Caii,andOi is also evident. In general, the May-07 2 Echelle-REOSC, 2.15-m CASLEO 15 000 3600–6100 emission-line profiles are highly variable showing preferentially Jun-07 1 Echelle, 2.5-m LCO 40 000 3450–9850 a double-peaked morphology. Variations in both the separation May-08 1 B&C, 2.5-m LCO 2500 3910–5510 Jun-08 1 Echelle-REOSC, 2.15-m CASLEO 15 000 3600–6100 and the ratio of the violet-to-red emission peaks, i.e., the V/R ra- Jul-09 1 B&C, 2.5-m LCO 2500 3910–5510 tio, are observed. The equivalent widths (EW) of some lines also Jan-10 1 MIKE, 6.5-m LCO 33 000 3350–9100 seem to show slight variations. On the other hand, absorption May-10 4 Echelle, 2.5-m LCO 40 000 3450–9850 lines of He ii (λ4200, λ4542, λ4686, and λ5411), C iii (λ4070, Feb-11 2 FEROS, 2.2-m La Silla 46 000 3570–9210 λ4650), O iii (λ5592), N iii (λλ4511, 4515, λ4535), and Si iv Feb-11 2 Echelle-REOSC, 2.15-m CASLEO 15 000 3600–6100 λ4089, can be also identified. It is important to note that the tra- Mar-11 3 FEROS, 2.2-m La Silla 46 000 3570–9210 ditional spectral-classification criteria for OB stars (Walborn & Apr-11 1 Echelle, 2.5-m LCO 40 000 3450–9850 Fitzpatrick 1990; Sota et al. 2011), cannot be applied here, since May-11 1 Echelle, 2.5-m LCO 40 000 3450–9850 the He i lines which are included in the temperature-sensitive May-11 1 FEROS, 2.2-m La Silla 46 000 3570–9210 ratios are filled-in by emission. However, the He ii lines sug- Jun-11 2 FEROS, 2.2-m La Silla 46 000 3570–9210 gest a spectral type of O9-B0 according to the strength of the Jul-11 1 MIKE, 6.5-m LCO 33 000 3330–9400 ii Sep-11 1 MIKE, 6.5-m LCO 33 000 3330–9400 He λ4542 line. In the following, we will refer to the phe- nomenology described above as the “Oe phase” of HD 120678. The spectrum of HD 120678 observed at CASLEO in June 2008 presents completely different characteristics. Figure 1 UV spectrum is that of a normal late-O dwarf, although based on presents the variations observed in the 4400–4700Å spectral the previous work, it had been concluded that HD 120678 was range. Most of the spectral lines previously observed in emis- an Oe-type star with normal extinction, its visual and IR col- sion, such as the Balmer and He i lines, are now observed as ff ors being a ected by circumstellar emission. More recently, strong absorptions, although traces of emission remain present Pojmanski & Maciejewski (2004) determined a periodicity of in some of them. On the other hand, some other emission fea- about 272 days for the observed light variations. In spite of its tures, such as Mg ii λ4481 and Fe ii, are no longer detectable. singular characteristics, no detailed study of HD 120678 can be Furthermore, a number of new absorption features become vis- found in the present bibliography. ible. We identify these new absorptions as O ii,Nii,Cii,Siiii, In this work, we report the discovery of a shell-like event and Fe iii, which we consider as originating in a shell according in the spectrum of HD 120678, discussing some of its possible to their low ionization and narrow widths.