CHARACTERIZATION of the INNER DISK AROUND HD 141569 A from KECK/NIRC2 L-BAND VORTEX CORONAGRAPHY

Dimitri Mawet, Élodie Choquet, Olivier Absil, Elsa Huby, Michael Bottom, Eugene Serabyn, Bruno Femenia, Jérémy Lebreton, Keith Matthews, Carlos A.Gomez Gonzalez, Olivier Wertz, Brunella Carlomagno, Valentin Christiaens, Denis Defrère, Christian Delacroix, Pontus Forsberg, Serge Habraken, Aissa Jolivet, Mikael Karlsson, Julien MilliChristophe Pinte, Pierre Piron, Maddalena Reggiani, Jean Surdej, Ernesto Vargas Catalan

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42 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

HD 141569 A is a pre-main sequence B9.5 Ve star surrounded by a prominent and complex circumstellar disk, likely still in a transition stage from protoplanetary to debris disk phase. Here, we present a new image of the third inner disk component of HD 141569 A made in the L′ band (3.8 μm) during the commissioning of the vector vortex coronagraph that has recently been installed in the near-infrared imager and spectrograph NIRC2 behind the W.M. Keck Observatory Keck II adaptive optics system. We used reference point-spread function subtraction, which reveals the innermost disk component from the inner working distance of ≃23 au and up to ≃70 au. The spatial scale of our detection roughly corresponds to the optical and near-infrared scattered light, thermal Q, N, and 8.6 μm PAH emission reported earlier. We also see an outward progression in dust location from the L′ band to the H band (Very Large Telescope/SPHERE image) to the visible (Hubble Space Telescope (HST)/STIS image), which is likely indicative of dust blowout. The warm disk component is nested deep inside the two outer belts imaged by HST-NICMOS in 1999 (at 406 and 245 au, respectively). We fit our new L′-band image and spectral energy distribution of HD 141569 A with the radiative transfer code MCFOST. Our best-fit models favor pure olivine grains and are consistent with the composition of the outer belts. While our image shows a putative very faint point-like clump or source embedded in the inner disk, we did not detect any true companion within the gap between the inner disk and the first outer ring, at a sensitivity of a few Jupiter masses.

Original languageEnglish
Article number44
Number of pages10
JournalThe Astronomical Journal
Volume153
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2017
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • planet-disk interactions
  • planetary systems
  • planets and satellites: formation
  • protoplanetary disks
  • stars: pre-main sequence
  • stars: variables: T Tauri, Herbig Ae/Be

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