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A. Roberge, A. J. Weinberger (Carnegie Instution of Washington, DTM), E. Malumuth (NASA-GSFC), G. Schneider (University of Arizona)
We present the first spatially resolved spectrum of scattered light from the TW Hydrae protoplanetary disk. This nearly face-on disk is optically thick, surrounding a classical T Tauri star in the nearby 8 Myr old TW Hya association. Accretion of disk material onto the central star is still occurring, but there are signs that growth of planetary material has begun (e.g. Weinberger et al. 2002)
Our HST-STIS spectrum covers the optical bandpass from 5000 Å\ to 1 micron. After careful subtraction of a PSF star spectrum, scattered light from the disk can be traced from about 37 AU to 124 AU from the star. The scattered light has the same color as the star (gray scattering) at all radii, except possibly the very innermost region. This likely indicates that either the scattering dust grains are much larger than 1 micron throughout the bulk of the disk or that the disk remains very optically thick out to 124 AU.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35#5
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.