The Photometric Variability of HH 30

TL;DR

This study monitored the brightness of HH 30 over time to detect periodic variability but found no significant periodic signals, suggesting stable brightness or variability below detection thresholds.

Contribution

The paper introduces a method to analyze photometric data accounting for short-term correlations and applies it to HH 30, finding no evidence of periodic modulation.

Findings

No significant periodic photometric modulation detected

Developed a new method for analyzing correlated time-series data

Results suggest stable brightness or low-amplitude variability

Abstract

HH 30 is an edge-on disk around a young stellar object. Previous imaging with the Hubble Space Telescope has show morphological variability that is possibly related to the rotation of the star or the disk. We report the results of two terrestrial observing campaigns to monitor the integrated magnitude of HH 30. We use the Lomb-Scargle periodogram to look for periodic modulation with periods between 2 days and almost 90 days in these two data sets and in a third, previously published, data set. We develop a method to deal with short-term correlations in the data. Our results indicate that none of the data sets shows evidence for significant periodic photometric modulation.