GM Aurigae
GM Aurigae is a K6V-type T Tauri star located 155 parsecs from Earth in the constellation of Auriga. It has a mass of 0.95 solar masses, a radius of 2 solar radii, a luminosity of 1.2 solar luminosity and a temperature of 4287 Kelvin. It has an age of around 3-10 million years and is a member of the Taurus-Auriga star forming region. The star is host to a circumstellar disk with a possible planet still forming within it.
It has a stellar rotation period between 5.18 and 6.1 days, with a rotational period of approximately 6.04 days being most likely.
Circumstellar disk
GM Aur is host to an extensively studied circumstellar disk. Within this disk it has a large dust cavity located at 35 AU. There is a fainter disk extending up to 250 AU. There is no consensus on whether this cavity was carved out by a forming exoplanet accreting material, photoevaporation, magnetohydrodynamic disk winds or a combination of all of the above. If there were a planet forming in the system, it would likely have a minimum mass of about 1.10 Jupiter masses. Spatially resolved submillimetre observations of GM Aur confirm the existence of a transitional disc that is inclined at 52.77° with respect to the line of sight. This disk also has an inner dust cavity with a radius of 30-40 AU.Spectra taken of the stars circumstellar disk show that H2 dominated the spectrum. Other than H2, OH lines have been detected within the disk of GM Aur along with CO emissions. Methyl cations and bicarbonate have also been found within the disk along with tentative signals of carbon dioxide. Water has also been detected, but is photo-destroyed at a rate of around molecules of water destroyed every second. This rate of destruction is less volatile than other stars.