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D.J. Wilner, A. Raman, M. Lisanti, C. Qi, M. Hogerheijde (Harvard-Smithsonian)
We present Submillimeter Array observations of the Herbig Ae star HD169142 in 1.3 millimeter continuum emission and 12CO J=2-1 line emission at ~1.5 arcsecond resolution that reveal a circumstellar disk. The continuum emission is centered on the star position and resolved and provides a mass estimate of ~0.02 solar masses for the disk. The CO images show patterns in position and velocity that are well matched by a disk in Keplerian rotation with low inclination to the line-of-sight. We use radiative transfer calculations based on a flared, passive disk model to constrain the disk parameters by comparison to the spectral line emission. The derived disk radius is 235 AU, and the inclination is 13 degrees. The model necessitates modest depletion of the CO molecules, similar to that found in Keplerian disks around T Tauri stars. The presence of the disk is strong evidence that HD169142 is a bona fide pre-main-sequence star, despite its distance from any molecular cloud. The star's spectral energy distribution, isolation, and the regularity of its disk velocity field suggest an advanced pre-main-sequence evolutionary state.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: dwliner@cfa.harvard.edu
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 37 #4
© 2005. The American Astronomical Soceity.