The Flying Saucer: Tomography of the thermal and density gas structure of an edge-on protoplanetary disk

Context. Determining the gas density and temperature structures of protoplanetary disks is a fundamental task in order to constrain planet formation theories. This is a challenging procedure and most determinations are based on model-dependent assumptions. Aims. We attempt a direct determination of...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Astronomy and astrophysics (Berlin) 2017-11, Vol.607, p.A130
Main Authors: Dutrey, A., Guilloteau, S., Piétu, V., Chapillon, E., Wakelam, V., Di Folco, E., Stoecklin, T., Denis-Alpizar, O., Gorti, U., Teague, R., Henning, T., Semenov, D., Grosso, N.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accretion disks
Angular resolution
Astrophysics
Carbon monoxide
circumstellar matter
Clouds
Desorption
Flight
Gas density
Gas temperature
Inclination
Molecular chains
Molecular clouds
Physics
Planet formation
protoplanetary disks
Protoplanets
radio lines: stars
Rotating disks
Rotation
Scale height
Star formation
Velocity
Velocity gradient
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Context. Determining the gas density and temperature structures of protoplanetary disks is a fundamental task in order to constrain planet formation theories. This is a challenging procedure and most determinations are based on model-dependent assumptions. Aims. We attempt a direct determination of the radial and vertical temperature structure of the Flying Saucer disk, thanks to its favorable inclination of 90 degrees. Methods. We present a method based on the tomographic study of an edge-on disk. Using ALMA, we observe at 0.5″ resolution the Flying Saucer in CO J = 2–1 and CS J = 5–4. This edge-on disk appears in silhouette against the CO J = 2–1 emission from background molecular clouds in ρ Oph. The combination of velocity gradients due to the Keplerian rotation of the disk and intensity variations in the CO background as a function of velocity provide a direct measure of the gas temperature as a function of radius and height above the disk mid-plane. Results. The overall thermal structure is consistent with model predictions, with a cold (
ISSN:0004-6361
1432-0746
1432-0756
DOI:10.1051/0004-6361/201730645