The Age of Gliese 879 and Fomalhaut
Abstract
We estimate here the age of one of the prototypes of the β Pic-like stars, Fomalhaut, based on the properties of its common proper motion companion Gl 879. By combining constraints derived from the lithium abundance, rotational velocity, H-R diagram position, and coronal activity we conclude that the age for Gl 879, and hence the age for Fomalhaut, is 200 +/- 100 Myr. This age estimate agrees quite well with the completely independent age estimate derived directly from isochrone fitting to Fomalhaut's position in an H-R diagram, and thus confirms that circumstellar dust disks can persist in A stars for several hundred megayears.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- January 1997
- DOI:
- arXiv:
- arXiv:astro-ph/9704021
- Bibcode:
- 1997ApJ...475..313B
- Keywords:
-
- Stars: Binaries: Visual;
- Stars: Circumstellar Matter;
- stars: evolution -- stars: individual (Piscis Astrini);
- stars: evolution -- stars: individual (Gliese 879);
- Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 27 pages, Postscript file
