The Enigmatic Young Object: Walker 90/V590 Monocerotis

TL;DR

This study investigates Walker 90/V590 Mon, a young pre-main sequence star, analyzing 45 years of multi-wavelength data to understand its evolutionary status and circumstellar environment.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive multi-decade analysis confirming Walker 90 as a young star with a flared, inclined accretion disk, and documents its spectral and brightness evolution.

Findings

Walker 90 shows spectral type evolution from A2/A3 to B7 over five decades.

The star's brightness increased to its brightest recorded optical magnitude in 2007.

Near-infrared fluxes decreased, supporting disk clearing processes.

Abstract

We assess the evolutionary status of the intriguing object Walker 90/V590 Mon, which is located about 20 arcminutes northwest of the Cone Nebula near the center of the open cluster NGC 2264. This object, according to its most recent optical spectral type determination (B7), which we confirmed, is at least 3 magnitudes too faint in V for the cluster distance, but it shows the classical signs of a young pre-main sequence object, such as highly variable Halpha emission, Mg II emission, IR excess, UV continuum, and optical variability. We analyzed a collection of archival and original data on Walker 90, covering 45 years including photometry, imaging, and spectroscopic data ranging from ultraviolet to near-infrared wavelengths. According to star formation processes, it is expected that, as this object clears its primordial surroundings, it should become optically brighter, show a weakening of its IR excess and present decreasing line emissions. This behavior is supported by our observations and analysis, but timescales are expected to be longer than the one observed here. Based on photometric data secured in 2007, we find Walker 90 at its brightest recorded optical magnitude. We document an evolution in spectral type over the past five decades (from A2/A3 to currently B7 and as early as B4), along with a decrease in the near-infrared K fluxes. From near-infrared images secured in 2004, Walker 90 appears as a point source placing an upper limit of 0.1 arcsec for its diameter. We conclude that many observational features are explained if W90 is a flared disk system, surrounded by an inclined optically thick accretion disk.