No Arabic abstract
The Nearby Young Moving Groups (NYMGs) of stars are ideal for the study of evolution circumstellar disks in which planets may form because their ages range from a few Myr to about 100 Myr, about the same as the interval over which planets are thought to form. Their stars are distributed over large regions of the sky. Hence, the Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) which scanned the entire sky in four bands from 3.4 to 22.1 mu provides a database well-suited for the study of members of the NYMGs, particularly those identified after the eras of the IRAS and Spitzer observatories. We report our study of the stars in the epsilon and eta Cha, TW Hya, beta Pic, Tuc-Hor, and AB Dor NYMGs. The WISE Preliminary Release Source Catalog, which covers 57% of the sky, contains data for 64% of the stars in our search lists. WISE detected the 11.6 and 22.1 mu emission of all the previously known disks except for the coldest one, AU Mic. WISE detected no disks in the Tuc-Hor and AB Dor groups, the two oldest in our sample; the frequency of disks detected by WISE decreases rapidly with age of the group. WISE detected a circumstellar disk associated with 2M J0820-8003, a pre-main sequence star with episodic accretion in the ~ 6 Myr old eta Cha cluster. The inner radius of the disk extends close to the star, ~0.02 AU and its luminosity is about a tenth that of the star. The episodic accretion is probably powered by the circumstellar disk discussed here.
T Cha is a nearby (d = 100 pc) transition disk known to have an optically thin gap separating optically thick inner and outer disk components. Huelamo et al. (2011) recently reported the presence of a low-mass object candidate within the gap of the T Cha disk, giving credence to the suspected planetary origin of this gap. Here we present the Herschel photometry (70, 160, 250, 350, and 500 micron) of T Cha from the Dust, Ice, and Gas in Time (DIGIT) Key Program, which bridges the wavelength range between existing Spitzer and millimeter data and provide important constraints on the outer disk properties of this extraordinary system. We model the entire optical to millimeter wavelength spectral energy distribution (SED) of T Cha (19 data points between 0.36 and 3300 micron without any major gaps in wavelength coverage). T Cha shows a steep spectral slope in the far-IR, which we find clearly favors models with outer disks containing little or no dust beyond 40 AU. The full SED can be modeled equally well with either an outer disk that is very compact (only a few AU wide) or a much larger one that has a very steep surface density profile. That is, T Chas outer disk seems to be either very small or very tenuous. Both scenarios suggest a highly unusual outer disk and have important but different implications for the nature of T Cha. Spatially resolved images are needed to distinguish between the two scenarios.
Very few molecular species have been detected in circumstellar disks surrounding young stellar objects. We are carrying out an observational study of the chemistry of circumstellar disks surrounding T Tauri and Herbig Ae stars. First results of this study are presented in this note. We used the EMIR receivers recently installed at the IRAM 30m telescope to carry a sensitive search for molecular lines in the disks surrounding AB Aur, DM Tau, and LkCa 15. We detected lines of the molecules HCO+, CN, H2CO, SO, CS, and HCN toward AB Aur. In addition, we tentatively detected DCO+ and H2S lines. The line profiles suggest that the CN, HCN, H2CO, CS and SO lines arise in the disk. This makes it the first detection of SO in a circumstellar disk. We have unsuccessfully searched for SO toward DM Tau and LkCa 15, and for c-C3H2 toward AB Aur, DM Tau, and LkCa 15. Our upper limits show that contrary to all the molecular species observed so far, SO is not as abundant in DM Tau as it is in AB Aur. Our results demonstrate that the disk associated with AB Aur is rich in molecular species. Our chemical model shows that the detection of SO is consistent with that expected from a very young disk where the molecular adsorption onto grains does not yet dominate the chemistry.
Cassiopeia A is a nearby young supernova remnant that provides a unique laboratory for the study of core-collapse supernova explosions. Cassiopeia A is known to be a Type IIb supernova from the optical spectrum of its light echo, but the immediate progenitor of the supernova remains uncertain. Here we report results of near-infrared, high-resolution spectroscopic observations of Cassiopeia A where we detected the pristine circumstellar material of the supernova progenitor. Our observations revealed a strong emission line of iron (Fe) from a circumstellar clump that has not yet been processed by the supernova shock wave. A comprehensive analysis of the observed spectra, together with an HST image, indicates that the majority of Fe in this unprocessed circumstellar material is in the gas phase, not depleted onto dust grains as in the general interstellar medium. This result is consistent with a theoretical model of dust condensation in material that is heavily enriched with CNO-cycle products, supporting the idea that the clump originated near the He core of the progenitor. It has been recently found that Type IIb supernovae can result from the explosion of a blue supergiant with a thin hydrogen envelope, and our results support such a scenario for Cassiopeia A.
Context. The Vela Molecular Ridge hosts a number of young embedded star clusters in the same evolutionary stage. Aims. The main aim of the present work is testing whether the fraction of members with a circumstellar disk in a sample of clusters in the cloud D of the Vela Molecular Ridge, is consistent with relations derived for larger samples of star clusters with an age spread. Besides, we want to constrain the age of the young embedded star clusters associated with cloud D. Methods. We carried out L (3.78 microns) photometry on images of six young embedded star clusters associated with cloud D of the Vela Molecular Ridge, taken with ISAAC at the VLT. These data are complemented with the available HKs photometry. The 6 clusters are roughly of the same size and appear to be in the same evolutionary stage. The fraction of stars with a circumstellar disk was measured in each cluster by counting the fraction of sources displaying a NIR excess in colour-colour (HKsL) diagrams. Results. The L photometry allowed us to identify the NIR counterparts of the IRAS sources associated with the clusters. The fraction of stars with a circumstellar disk appears to be constant within errors for the 6 clusters. There is a hint that this is lower for the most massive stars. The age of the clusters is constrained to ~1-2 Myr. Conclusions. The fraction of stars with a circumstellar disk in the observed sample is consistent with the relations derived from larger samples of star clusters and with other age estimates for cloud D. The fraction may be lower for the most massive stars. Our results agree with a scenario where all intermediate and low-mass stars form with a disk, whose lifetime is shorter for higher mass stars.
The debris disk surrounding $beta$ Pictoris has a gas composition rich in carbon and oxygen, relative to solar abundances. Two possible scenarios have been proposed to explain this enrichment. The preferential production scenario suggests that the gas produced may be naturally rich in C and O, while the alternative preferential depletion scenario states that the enrichment has evolved to the current state from a gas with solar-like abundances. In the latter case, the radiation pressure from the star expels the gas outwards, leaving behind species less sensitive to stellar radiation such as C and O. Nitrogen is also not sensitive to radiation pressure due to its low oscillator strength, which would make it also overabundant under the preferential depletion scenario. As such, the abundance of N in the disk may provide clues to why C and O are overabundant. We aim to measure the N column density in the direction of $beta$ Pic, and use this information to disentangle these different scenarios explaining the C and O overabundance. Using far-UV spectroscopic data collected by the HSTs Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) instrument, we analyse the spectrum and characterise the NI triplet by modelling the absorption lines. We measure the N column density in the direction of $beta$ Pic for the first time, and find it to be $log(N_{mathrm{NI}}/1,mathrm{cm}^2) = 14.9pm0.7$. The N gas is found to be consistent with solar abundances and Halley dust. The solar N abundance supports the preferential production hypothesis, in which the composition of gas in $beta$,Pic is the result of photodesorption from icy grains rich in C and O or collisional vaporisation of C and O rich dust in the disk. It does not support the hypothesis that C and O are overabundant due to the insensitivity of C and O to radiation pressure thereby leaving them to accumulate in the disk.