Starspots

Physics of magnetospheric accretion in Classical T Tauri Stars

01/11/2025 to 31/10/2028

Classical T Tauri stars (cTTS) are young stars that accrete matter from a circumstellar disk along magnetic field lines. Accretion ends at the stellar surface with the formation of a shock that produces a hot spot. In this project, such accretion hot spots will be studied both photometrically and spectroscopically for five of the most studied cTTS, the monitoring targets of the Hubble Space Telescope ULLYSES program. Both the vertical and the latitudinal structure of the hot spot and accretion column will be examined by a time-resolved analysis of emission lines from various species. Data from the NASA TESS mission and the ESO VLT will be used.