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A rotating disk of gas and dust around a young counterpart to β Pictoris

Nature volume 388, pages 555–557 (1997)Cite this article

Abstract

β Pictoris is the best known example of a main-sequence star encircled by a tenuous disk1. Optical2,3 and infrared4 images of β Pic suggest that the disk is composed of dust grains which have been interpreted1 as the debris generated by the disruption of the asteroid-sized remnants of planet-formation processes5. The star itself is relatively old, with an age in excess of 100 Myr. Here we present high-resolution millimetre-wave images of continuum and molecular-line emission from dust and gas surrounding a much younger star, MWC480: the stellar properties of MWC480 are similar to those of β Pic, but its age is just 6 Myr. The morphology of the circumstellar material and a comparison with the predictions of kinematic modelling indicate the presence of a rotating disk, gravitationally bound to the star. Moreover, the mass of the disk is greater than the minimum required to form a planetary system like our own5. We therefore suggest that the disk around the young star MWC480 could be a progenitor of debris disks of the type associated with older stars such as β Pic, and so holds much promise for the study of both the origin of debris disks and the early stages of the formation of planetary systems.

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Figure 1: False-colour images of millimetre-wave emission from MWC480.
Figure 2: Aa–Al, Spectral-line maps of CO(2 → 1) emission from MWC480, shown adjacent to simulations of the emission predicted by a kinematic model of a disk in keplerian rotation with parameters as described in the text.

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Acknowledgements

V.M. thanks M. Romans and N. Romans for their support. We thank the staff at the Owens Valley Radio Observatory for their assistance. The Owens Valley millimetre-wave array is supported by the NSF; array studies of young star and disk systems are supported in part by the Norris Planetary Origins project and by NASA's Origins of Solar Systems programme.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, MS 105-24, Pasadena, 91125, California, USA

    Vincent Mannings & Anneila I. Sargent

  2. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, MS 183-501, 4800 Oak Grove Boulevard, Pasadena, 91109, California, USA

    David W. Koerner

Authors
  1. Vincent Mannings
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  2. David W. Koerner
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  3. Anneila I. Sargent
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Correspondence to Vincent Mannings.

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Mannings, V., Koerner, D. & Sargent, A. A rotating disk of gas and dust around a young counterpart to β Pictoris. Nature 388, 555–557 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/41505

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