Hipparcoslight curves for AE Aurigae. The main plot shows the long-term variation, and the inset plot shows the variation folded over a period of 213.7 days. Adapted from Marchenkoet al. (1998)[7]
It is arunaway star that might have been ejected during a collision of two binary star groups. This collision, which also is credited with ejectingMu Columbae and possibly53 Arietis, has been traced to theTrapezium cluster in theOrion Nebula two million years ago. The binaryIota Orionis may have been the other half of this collision.[9]
AE Aur is seen to light up the Flaming Star nebula, but it was not formed within it. Instead it is passing through the nebula at high speed and producing a violent bow shock and high energy electromagnetic radiation.[10][11]
Two candidate companion stars have been detected atangular distances of 8.4″ and 0.35″, respectively, but these are thought to be unrelated, optical companions. A new potential companion was discovered using theCHARA array in 2023. In December 2017, it had an angular separation from AE Aurigae of 6.85 mas, and in September 2018 it had an angular separation of 1.74 mas.[12]
^abcDucati, J. R. (2002). "VizieR Online Data Catalog: Catalogue of Stellar Photometry in Johnson's 11-color system".CDS/ADC Collection of Electronic Catalogues.2237.Bibcode:2002yCat.2237....0D.
^abSamus, N. N.; Durlevich, O. V.; et al. (2009). "VizieR Online Data Catalog: General Catalogue of Variable Stars (Samus+ 2007-2013)".VizieR On-line Data Catalog: B/GCVS. Originally Published in: 2009yCat....102025S.1.Bibcode:2009yCat....102025S.
^Kharchenko, N. V.; Scholz, R.-D.; Piskunov, A. E.; Röser, S.; Schilbach, E. (2007). "Astrophysical supplements to the ASCC-2.5: Ia. Radial velocities of ˜55000 stars and mean radial velocities of 516 Galactic open clusters and associations".Astronomische Nachrichten.328 (9): 889.arXiv:0705.0878.Bibcode:2007AN....328..889K.doi:10.1002/asna.200710776.S2CID119323941.
^Marchenko, S. V.; Moffat, A. F. J.; van der Hucht, K. A.; Seggewiss, W.; Schrijver, H.; Stenholm, B.; Lundström, I.; Setia Gunawan, D. Y. A.; Sutantyo, W.; van den Heuvel, E. P. J.; De Cuyper, J. P.; Gómez, A. E. (March 1998). "Wolf-Rayet stars and O-star runaways with HIPPARCOS II. Photometry".Astronomy & Astrophysics.331:1022–1036.Bibcode:1998A&A...331.1022M.
^López-Santiago, J.; Miceli, M.; Del Valle, M. V.; Romero, G. E.; Bonito, R.; Albacete-Colombo, J. F.; Pereira, V.; De Castro, E.; Damiani, F. (2012). "AE Aurigae: First Detection of Non-thermal X-Ray Emission from a Bow Shock Produced by a Runaway Star".The Astrophysical Journal Letters.757 (1): L6.arXiv:1208.6511.Bibcode:2012ApJ...757L...6L.doi:10.1088/2041-8205/757/1/L6.S2CID37792833.
^Lanthermann, C.; Le Bouquin, J.-B.; Sana, H.; Mérand, A.; Monnier, J. D.; Perraut, K.; Frost, A. J.; Mahy, L.; Gosset, E.; De Becker, M.; Kraus, S.; Anugu, N.; Davies, C. L.; Ennis, J.; Gardner, T.; Labdon, A.; Setterholm, B.; Ten Brummelaar, T.; Schaefer, G. H. (2023). "Multiplicity of northern bright O-type stars with optical long baseline interferometry".Astronomy & Astrophysics.672: A6.arXiv:2302.03168.Bibcode:2023A&A...672A...6L.doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202245364.PMID36974081.
