Letter to the Editor

Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopy of HD 76534

¹ Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille, Traverse du Siphon, BP 8, 13376 Marseille Cedex 12, France
² Université de Provence, CMI, 39 rue Joliot Curie, 13453 Marseille Cedex 13, France
³ Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, 2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
⁴ Observatoire de Paris-Meudon, CNRS, Paris, France

Corresponding author: C. Martin, Claire.Martin@oamp.fr

Received: 22 December 2003
Accepted: 22 January 2004

Abstract

We present the first Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) spectrum of HD 76534, a Herbig Be star. Here we focus on the analysis of the H₂ absorption lines which allow to quantify the gaseous content along the line of sight. This analysis evidences large amounts of cold and warm H₂ toward the star. We demonstrate that the H₂ is bound to HD 76534 and we argue that it is likely distributed in a circumstellar envelope. In addition, the present study gives clues for the existence of common properties for the circumstellar H₂ of Herbig Ae/Be stars.