JWST captures a sudden stellar outburst and inner disk wall destruction
Chengyan Xie, Ilaria Pascucci, Dingshan Deng, Naman S. Bajaj, Richard, Alexander, Andrew Sellek, Agnes Kospal, Giulia Ballabio, Uma Gorti

TL;DR
JWST observed a sudden stellar outburst in T~Cha, destroying the inner disk wall and causing significant changes in its infrared emission, revealing dynamic disk evolution.
Contribution
This study provides the first direct JWST observations of a stellar outburst affecting the inner disk structure of a variable star.
Findings
Significant change in infrared spectrum compared to 17 years ago.
Evidence of inner disk wall destruction during the outburst.
Dust mass loss estimated at about 20% of the inner disk mass.
Abstract
We present JWST/MIRI observations of T~Cha, a highly variable (3-5\,mag) accreting Sun-like star surrounded by a disk with a large (\,au) dust gap. We find that the JWST mid-infrared spectrum is signiticantly different from the {\it Spitzer} spectrum obtained 17 years before, where the emission at short wavelengths () has decreased by while at longer wavelengths () it increased by up to a factor of . This 'seesaw' behavior is contemporary with a fairly constant higher optical emission captured by the All Sky Automated Survey. By analyzing and modelling both SEDs, we propose that JWST caught the star during an outburst that destructed the asymmetric inner disk wall responsible for the high optical variability and lower \,micron\ emission during the {\it Spitzer} time. The dust mass lost during this outburst is…
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