THE GRAY NEEDLE: LARGE GRAINS IN THE HD 15115 DEBRIS DISK FROM LBT /PISCES/Ks AND LBTI /LMIRcam/L' ADAPTIVE OPTICS IMAGING

Journal Article · Sun Jun 10 00:00:00 EDT 2012 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/752/1/57· OSTI ID:22037058

Rodigas, Timothy J; Hinz, Philip M; Vaitheeswaran, Vidhya; Skemer, Andrew J; Su, Kate Y. L.; Bailey, Vanessa; Schneider, Glenn; Close, Laird; Apai, Daniel ^[1]; Leisenring, Jarron; Skrutskie, Michael ^[2]; Mannucci, Filippo; Esposito, Simone; Arcidiacono, Carmelo; Pinna, Enrico; Argomedo, Javier; Agapito, Guido; Bono, Giuseppe; Briguglio, Runa ^[3]; Boutsia, Kostantina ^[4] ; others, and

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1. Steward Observatory, The University of Arizona, 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721 (United States)
2. Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia, 530 McCormick Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903 (United States)
3. INAF-Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Largo E. Fermi 5, I-50125 Firenze (Italy)
4. INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Via Frascati 33, I-00040 Monte Porzio Catone (Italy)

We present diffraction-limited Ks band and L' adaptive optics images of the edge-on debris disk around the nearby F2 star HD 15115, obtained with a single 8.4 m primary mirror at the Large Binocular Telescope. At the Ks band, the disk is detected at signal-to-noise per resolution element (SNRE) {approx} 3-8 from {approx}1 to 2.''5 (45-113 AU) on the western side and from {approx}1.''2 to 2.''1 (63-90 AU) on the east. At L' the disk is detected at SNRE {approx} 2.5 from {approx}1 to 1.''45 (45-90 AU) on both sides, implying more symmetric disk structure at 3.8 {mu}m. At both wavelengths the disk has a bow-like shape and is offset from the star to the north by a few AU. A surface brightness asymmetry exists between the two sides of the disk at the Ks band, but not at L'. The surface brightness at the Ks band declines inside 1'' ({approx}45 AU), which may be indicative of a gap in the disk near 1''. The Ks - L' disk color, after removal of the stellar color, is mostly gray for both sides of the disk. This suggests that scattered light is coming from large dust grains, with 3-10 {mu}m sized grains on the east side and 1-10 {mu}m dust grains on the west. This may suggest that the west side is composed of smaller dust grains than the east side, which would support the interpretation that the disk is being dynamically affected by interactions with the local interstellar medium.

• OSTI ID: 22037058
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 752, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
ASTRONOMY
ASTROPHYSICS
BRIGHTNESS
COLOR
COSMIC DUST
DIFFRACTION
IMAGES
INTERSTELLAR SPACE
MIRRORS
OPTICS
PLANETS
RESOLUTION
STARS
TELESCOPES
VISIBLE RADIATION