SPATIALLY AND SPECTRALLY RESOLVED HYDROGEN GAS WITHIN 0.1 AU OF T TAURI AND HERBIG Ae/Be STARS
- Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721 (United States)
- Astronomy Department, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (United States)
- W.M. Keck Observatory, Kamuela, HI 96743 (United States)
- NASA Exoplanet Science Institute, Caltech, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
- Astronomy Department, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States)
- Astrophysics Department, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
- Max-Planck-Institut fuer Astronomie, Koenigstuhl 17, D-69117 Heidelberg (Germany)
We present near-infrared observations of T Tauri and Herbig Ae/Be stars with a spatial resolution of a few milliarcseconds and a spectral resolution of {approx}2000. Our observations spatially resolve gas and dust in the inner regions of protoplanetary disks, and spectrally resolve broad-linewidth emission from the Br{gamma} transition of hydrogen gas. We use the technique of spectro-astrometry to determine centroids of different velocity components of this gaseous emission at a precision orders of magnitude better than the angular resolution. In all sources, we find the gaseous emission to be more compact than or distributed on similar spatial scales to the dust emission. We attempt to fit the data with models including both dust and Br{gamma}-emitting gas, and we consider both disk and infall/outflow morphologies for the gaseous matter. In most cases where we can distinguish between these two models, the data show a preference for infall/outflow models. In all cases, our data appear consistent with the presence of some gas at stellocentric radii of {approx}0.01 AU. Our findings support the hypothesis that Br{gamma} emission generally traces magnetospherically driven accretion and/or outflows in young star/disk systems.
- OSTI ID:
- 21455115
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 718, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/718/2/774; ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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