GAPS IN THE HD 169142 PROTOPLANETARY DISK REVEALED BY POLARIMETRIC IMAGING: SIGNS OF ONGOING PLANET FORMATION?

• DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/766/1/l2
• Publication Date: 2013-03-01T11:35:03Z
• Authors: Sascha P. Quanz; Henning Avenhaus; Esther Buenzli; Antonio Garufi; Hans Martin Schmid; Sebastian Wolf
• Keywords: Debris disk; Circumstellar disk; Thick disk

We present H-band Very Large Telescope/NACO polarized light images of the Herbig Ae/Be star HD 169142 probing its protoplanetary disk as close ∼01 to star. Our trace face-on out ∼17 (∼250 AU) and reveal distinct substructures for first time: (1) inner (≲20 appears be depleted in scattering dust grains; (2) an unresolved rim is imaged at ∼25 AU; (3) annular gap extends from ∼40 70 (4) local brightness asymmetries are found on opposite sides gap. discuss different explanations observed morphology among which ongoing planet formation a tempting, but yet proven, one. Outside ∼85 AU surface drops off roughly ∝r−3.3, describing regions between 85–120 120–250 separately with power laws ∝r−2.6 ∝r−3.9 provides better fit hinting toward another discontinuity surface. The flux ratio disk-integrated central ∼4.1 × 10−3. Finally, combining our results those literature, ∼40% scattered H band polarized. emphasize that interesting system future or evolution studies.