Abstract
HD 50138 (V743 Mon, MWC 158, or IRAS 06491-0654) is a B[e] star of the FS CMa type. It is supposed to be a post-main-sequence star, which is still not highly evolved.
The presence of a gaseous and dusty envelope precludes direct observations of the central object, and the possible binarity and physical nature of HD 50138 remains unclear. We present a long-term spectroscopic monitoring of this object over the last 20 years (Jefabkova et al. 2016).
Based on the obtained data, we confirm a quasi-periodic behavior of the object's spectral variability with two newly found long periods manifested in the Ha and forbidden [0 t] lines. The rotating structures around the object are supported by the detection of moving humps in the Ha profile.
Our results are consistent with either mass transfer in a binary system or the presence of an outflowing disk. Since our data cannot confirm the presence of a binary companion, the origin of such systems remains an interesting problem for further investigation.