Artist drawing of the dusty environment around a young stellar object.
Planets are believed to form in these environments when stars are relatively young.
Image credit: NASA
Named after the prototype of the class, UX Ori type variables (commonly called UXOrs) are intermediate mass, pre-main sequence Herbig Ae/Be stars. The light curves of these stars show Algol-like fadings of 1 magnitude or more in random intervals of days to weeks. These fadings are accompanied by a change in color and are thought to be caused by non-uniform dust structure around the star.
AAVSO 3000 day light curve of UX Ori
