The VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey. XV. VFTS 822: A candidate Herbig B[e] star at low metallicity

We report the discovery of the B[e] star VFTS 822 in the 30 Doradus star-forming region of the Large Magellanic Cloud, classified by optical spectroscopy from the VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey and complementary infrared photometry. VFTS 822 is a relatively low-luminosity (log L = 4.04 ± 0.25 L_⊙) B8[e] star. In this Letter, we evaluate the evolutionary status of VFTS 822 and discuss its candidacy as a Herbig B[e] star. If the object is indeed in the pre-main sequence phase, it would present an exciting opportunity to spectroscopically measure mass accretion rates at low metallicity, to probe the effect of metallicity on accretion rates.

Based on the observations at the European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope in programme 182.D-0222.Table 1 and Fig. 4 are available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.orgFinal reduced FLAMES spectra are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (ftp://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/564/L7