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P.M. Hinz, M.R. Meyer, E.E. Mamajek, W.F. Hoffmann (Steward Observatory), J.L. Hora (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)
We report the detection of extended thermal emission from the circumstellar disk around HD 100546. The object is a well studied Herbig Ae system with intriguing indications of planetesimal formation (Malfait et al. 1998). The disk was resolved using nulling interferometry at 10.3 and 11.7 microns as well as direct imaging at 18 and 24.5 microns with the BLINC/MIRAC instrument using the Magellan I telescope. The spatial extent of the disk at 10 and 20 microns is consistent with a flared disk model where the stellar illumination of the disk surface provides the main source of mid-infrared flux (Chiang and Goldreich 1997). This detection, coupled with previous nulling observations of other Herbig Ae stars which do not resolve the mid-infrared emission suggest a variation in the spatial structure of dust disks around Herbig Ae objects due to evolutionary or viewing angle differences.