Planet-Formation Observation
Three stellar bursts reveal a slower-moving gas story
Webb and ground spectra follow DQ Tau through three accretion pulses while its hot molecular emission steadily weakens and moves outward.
Briefed November 7, 2026 · Aliens in the Clouds
Accepted Study · Multi-Epoch Spectroscopy
Jacob Hyden and colleagues monitored the eccentric young binary DQ Tau for forty days with seven instruments, including nine Webb MIRI and nine IRTF iSHELL visits. The campaign spans three accretion bursts tied to the system's roughly sixteen-day orbit, with accretion-luminosity pulses rising by factors of about nine to eighty.
Hydrogen and the five-micron continuum respond to individual bursts, but hot carbon monoxide and water lines decrease in width and brightness across roughly thirty to thirty-five days. The authors interpret that behavior as a cooling, shrinking gas reservoir whose emission moves to larger radii inside the binary-cleared cavity. A four-to-five-orbit modulation may regulate gas buildup, but its physical origin remains unsettled.
Why it matters
Planet-forming disks around binaries are time-variable laboratories. Following several bursts at once separates rapid accretion flashes from slower changes in the gas that may eventually feed planets.
What the source establishes
Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal and submitted November 5. The line changes are measured across the campaign; the proposed gas-buildup cycle is an interpretation and its driver is unknown.
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