Imaging the Small-Scale Circumstellar Gas Around T~Tauri Stars
Abstract
We have detected circumstellar molecular gas around a small sample of T Tauri stars through aperture synthesis imaging of CO(2-1) emission at ~2-3'' resolution. RY Tauri, DL Tauri, DO Tauri, and AS 209 show resolved and elongated gaseous emission. For RY Tau, the deconvolved, half-maximum radius along the direction of elongation, PA~48deg, is 110 AU. Corresponding radii and orientations for the other sources are: DL Tau -- 250 AU at PA~84deg; DO Tau -- 350 AU at PA~160deg; AS 209 -- 290 AU at PA~138deg. RY Tau, DL Tau, and AS 209 show velocity gradients parallel to the elongation, suggesting that the circumstellar material is rotating. RY Tau and AS 209 also exhibit double-peaked spectra characteristic of a rotating disk. Line emission from DO Tau is dominated by high-velocity blue-shifted gas which complicates the interpretation. Nevertheless, there is in each case sufficient evidence to speculate that the circumstellar emission may arise from a protoplanetary disk similar to that from which our solar system formed.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9503034,
title = {Imaging the Small-Scale Circumstellar Gas Around T~Tauri Stars},
author = {D. W. Koerner and A. I. Sargent},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9503034},
year = {2016}
}
Comments
TeX file with associated macros, no figures; AJ in press. Also available as a compressed postscript file (including figures) by anonymous ftp at ftp://cougar.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/davidk/preprints/COinTTS.ps.Z