Discovery of a Candidate Protoplanetary Disk around the Embedded Source IRc9 in Orion
Abstract
We report the detection of spatially extended mid-infrared emission around the luminous embedded star IRc9 in OMC-1, as seen in 8.8, 11.7, and 18.3 μm images obtained with the Thermal-Region Camera and Spectrograph on Gemini South. The extended emission is asymmetric, and the morphology is reminiscent of warm dust disks around other young stars. The putative disk has a radius of roughly 1.5" (700 AU) and a likely dust mass of almost 10 M⊕. The infrared spectral energy distribution of IRc9 indicates a total luminosity of ~100 Lsolar, implying that it will become an early A-type star when it reaches the main sequence. Thus, the candidate disk around IRc9 may be a young analog of the planetary debris disks around Vega-like stars and the disks of Herbig Ae stars, and may provide a laboratory in which to study the earliest phases of planet formation. A disk around IRc9 may also add weight to the hypothesis that an enhanced T Tauri-like wind from this star has influenced the molecular outflow from the OMC-1 core.
Based on observations obtained at the Gemini Observatory, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under a cooperative agreement with the NSF on behalf of the Gemini partnership: the National Science Foundation (US), the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (UK), the National Research Council (Canada), CONICYT (Chile), the Australian Research Council (Australia), CNPq (Brazil), and CONICET (Argentina).- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- March 2005
- DOI:
- 10.1086/429373
- arXiv:
- arXiv:astro-ph/0502172
- Bibcode:
- 2005ApJ...622L..65S
- Keywords:
-
- Stars: Planetary Systems: Protoplanetary Disks;
- Stars: Formation;
- Stars: Pre-Main-Sequence;
- Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 7 pages, 2 figs, Accepted by ApJ Letters