J0328-1219 Photometry Observations, Season #5
by amateur Bruce L. Gary, using Tom Kaye Observations with his 1.1-m (44") telescope (Roemer VIsta Observatory, RVO)

Last updated: 2025.01.04

This web page is meant to be an archive of light curve observations for "observing season #5" (2024 December to 2025 March) of white dwarf J0328-1219 using Tom Kaye's 44" home-built telescope (link). My web pages can sometimes serve to help with collaborations if I join with others to study the same star. This web page may serve this purpose since I'm aware of a group of astronomers (headed by Zachary Vanderbosch) that was engaged in the first and second observing seasons of observations following publication about the variable nature of J0328. My Web Site #4 is located at http://www.brucegary.net/J0328-4/; it includes Tom Kaye's and my observations during the 4th observing season (2023.08.28 to 2024.03.04).

Current Status

A-period is dominant (over B-period). OOT time and dip time are about equal. Both behaviors resemble the past 4 years. For dips in both the A- and B-systems depths for two wavelengths (g'- and R-band) are the same. This means that small dust cloud particles (radii < 0.1 micron) are absent (see our publication of this result at link). This is also true for WD1145 (which J0328 resembles in other respects).   

General Information About J0328

RA/DE = 03:28:33.7 -12:19:45, g'-mag = 16.7, r'-mag = 16.6, white dwarf type = DZ, T_eff = 7630 ± 140 K (Vanderbosch et al., 2021), R_star = 1.167 ± 0.022 × R_earth =  0.0107 ± 0.0005 × R_sun = 7.443e+3 km, M_star = 0.731 ± 0.023 × M_sun, A-system orbit radius = 0.0098 a.u. = 1.466e+6 km (for P = 9.952 hrs), A-system orbital speed = 257 km/s, star diameter crossing time for A-system = 3.59 min. Radius of star as seen from A orbit is 0.29 deg. Temperature of rotating particles in A orbit = 388 K. Observing season is centered on Nov 18 (and extends from about Aug 01 to Mar 05).

List of Internal Links

    List of Observing Dates  
    Observing Date Graphs  
    Finder image  
    Physical model suggestion  
    References  
    Related external links  

Observing Session Dates

2025.12.25 to 2025.01.01

Observing Session Light Curves

2025.12.25 to 2025.01.01



Finder Image


Finder image. FOV = 15 x 10 'arc. North up, east left. The best stars to use for reference are the clue-circled ones; I avoid use of the 3 red stars.


Physical Model Suggestion

J0328 resembles WD1145 in the following ways: 1) dips are present some of the time, 2) dips exist for weeks to months, 3) the inner-most orbit is the most active in producing dips, and 4) dust clouds are in orbits that can (or must) be close to the WD's tidal radius. J0328 differs from WD1145 in the following respects: 1) during seasons #1 and #2 J0328 dips were present essentially all the time, whereas for WD1145 there are almost always plenty of OOT time per orbit, 2 ) the J0328 dust clouds are in a larger orbit , with P > twice the WD1145 P's. 


Since the WD1145 dust cloud sources (fragments of a planetesimal source) are certainly related in some way to being on the verge of tidal disruption I suggest that the J0628 dust clouds are produced by the same mechanism. I propose that the fragments for both WD1145 and J0328 are being bombarded by a background of rock collisions that become exhausted at the fragment location after a few weeks to months. This replenishment of dust that is continually lost from Keplerian shear and radiation pressure amounts to a steady-state of production and loss, thus accounting for long timescale preservation of dust cloud shape (depth and width) that would not occur in the absence of continual collision bombardment.

When a fragment begins to be bombarded by a swarm of rocky debris it will start with a shape that is narrow and will deepen quickly, while eventually reaching a steady-state level of collisional bombardment. While the rate of rocky bombardment is constant the dip will have a quasi-constant shape (depth and width). As the background level of rocky debris diminishes the dip should broaden and become reduced in depth. These three life-cycle phases can be thought of as "early, "middle" and "late." Accordingly, this observing season's A dip is in a late phase whereas the B dip is in an early phase.

Whereas WD1145's planetesimal source for fragments is a planetary core (with density ~ 7 g/cc), the J0328 planetesimal source for fragments is an asteroid (with density ~ 2 g/cc).

My Collaboration Policy

Please don't ask me to co-author a paper! At my age of 84 I'm entitled to have fun and avoid work. Observing and figuring things out is fun; writing papers is work. My observations are "in the public domain" and are available for use by anyone. If my data is essential to any publication just mention this in the Acknowledgement section.


References

Vanderbosch, Zachary P., Saul Rappaport, Joseph A. Guidry, Bruce L. Gary and 13 others, "Recurring Planetary Debris Transits and Circumstellar Gas around White Dwarf ZTF J0328-1219," MNRAS arXiv

Xu, Siyi, Samuel Lai and Erik Dennihy, 2020, "Infrared Excesses around Bright White Dwarfs from Gaia and unWISE I," arXiv 

Guidry, Joseph A., Zachary P. Vanderbosch, J. J. Hermes, Brad N. Barlow, Isaac D. Lopez, Thomas M. Boudreaux, Kyle A. Corcoran, Bart H. Dunlap, Keaton J. Bell, M. H. Montgomery, Tyler M. Heintz, D. E. Winget, Karen I. Winget, J. W. Kuehne, 2020, "I Spy Transits and Pulsations: Empirical Variability in White Dwarfs Using Gaia and the Zwicky Transient Facility," submitted to ApJ, arXiv

Rappaport, Saul, Roberto
Sanchis-Ojeda, Leslie A. Rogers, Alan Levine & Joshua Winn, 2013, "The Roche Limit for Close-Orbiting Planets: Minimum Density, Composition Constraints and Applications to the 4.2-Hour Planet KOI 1843.03," ApJ L, arXiv 


External Links of Possible Relevance

Gary, Bruce L. and Thomas G. Kaye, 2024, "Absence of Small Dust Cloud Particles Transiting the White Dwarf J0328-1219," arXiv.
J0328 Photometry observations by Bruce Gary during observing season #1 (2020/2021)
WD1145 summary of 4 observing seasons
WD1145 for 2020/21 observing season
Resume of webmaster

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This site opened January 04, 2025. Nothing on this web page is copyrighted.