English

JWST MIRI MRS Images Disk Winds, Water, and CO in an Edge-On Protoplanetary Disk

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics 2024-03-22 v2 Earth and Planetary Astrophysics Astrophysics of Galaxies

Abstract

We present JWST MIRI MRS observations of the edge-on protoplanetary disk around the young sub-solar mass star Tau 042021, acquired as part of the Cycle 1 GO program "Mapping Inclined Disk Astrochemical Signatures (MIDAS)." These data resolve the mid-IR spatial distributions of H2_2, revealing X-shaped emission extending to ~200 au above the disk midplane with a semi-opening angle of 35±535 \pm 5 degrees. We do not velocity-resolve the gas in the spectral images, but the measured semi-opening angle of the H2_2 is consistent with an MHD wind origin. A collimated, bipolar jet is seen in forbidden emission lines from [Ne II], [Ne III], [Ni II], [Fe II], [Ar II], and [S III]. Extended H2_2O and CO emission lines are also detected, reaching diameters between ~90 and 190 au, respectively. Hot molecular emission is not expected at such radii, and we interpret its extended spatial distribution as scattering of inner disk molecular emission by dust grains in the outer disk surface. H I recombination lines, characteristic of inner disk accretion shocks, are similarly extended, and are likely also scattered light from the innermost star-disk interface. Finally, we detect extended PAH emission at 11.3 microns co-spatial with the scattered light continuum, making this the first low-mass T Tauri star around which extended PAHs have been confirmed, to our knowledge. MIRI MRS line images of edge-on disks provide an unprecedented window into the outflow, accretion, and scattering processes within protoplanetary disks, allowing us to constrain the disk lifetimes and accretion and mass loss mechanisms.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2402.12256,
  title  = {JWST MIRI MRS Images Disk Winds, Water, and CO in an Edge-On Protoplanetary Disk},
  author = {Nicole Arulanantham and M. K. McClure and Klaus Pontoppidan and Tracy L. Beck and J. A. Sturm and D. Harsono and A. C. A. Boogert and M. Cordiner and E. Dartois and M. N. Drozdovskaya and C. Espaillat and G. J. Melnick and J. A. Noble and M. E. Palumbo and Y. J. Pendleton and H. Terada and E. F. van Dishoeck},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2402.12256},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

Accepted for publication in ApJL on March 13th, 2024