Gomez's Hamburger, also known as IRAS 18059-3211 or Gomez's Whopper[6][7] is an astronomical object believed to be a young A-type star surrounded by a protoplanetary disk.[4] It was initially identified as a planetary nebula, and its distance was estimated to be approximately 6500 light-years away from Earth.[8] However, recent results suggest that this object is a young star surrounded by a protoplanetary disk, at a distance of about 900 light-years away.[4][9]
It was discovered in 1985 on sky photographs obtained by Arturo Gómez, support technical staff at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory near Vicuña, Chile.[10] The photos suggested that there was a dark band across the object, but its exact structure was difficult to determine because of the atmospheric turbulence that hampers all images taken from the ground. The star itself has a surface temperature of approximately 10,000 K.
The "buns" are light reflecting off dust. A disk of dust seen nearly exactly edge-on obscures the star and produces the dark band in the middle, the "burger".[4] It has a dim visual magnitude of 14.4.
Possible protoplanet
An emission at the southern part of the disk seen in carbon monoxide imaging, as well as in mid-infrared imaging, was interpreted as a protoplanet candidate, termed GoHam b. This candidate would have a mass of 0.8-11.4 MJ.[11] Protoplanetary disk can however form disk fragments that are gravitationally bound and can mimic protoplanets. In the case of GoHam b it is not clear if it is a protoplanet or just a disk fragment.[12]
^ abCutri, Roc M.; et al. (2003). "VizieR Online Data Catalog: 2MASS All-Sky Catalog of Point Sources (Cutri+ 2003)". CDS/ADC Collection of Electronic Catalogues. 2246: II/246. Bibcode:2003yCat.2246....0C.
^Ruiz, Maria Teresa; Blanco, Victor; Maza, Jose; Heathcote, Steve; Phillips, Andrew; Kawara, Kimiaki; Anguita, Claudio; Hamuy, Mario; Gomez, Arturo (1987). "IRAS 18059-3211: Optically Known as Gomez's Hamburger". The Astrophysical Journal. 316: L21. Bibcode:1987ApJ...316L..21R. doi:10.1086/184884.