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Keck/NIRC2 Imaging of the Warped, Asymmetric Debris Disk Around HD 32297We present Keck/NIRC2 Ks band high-contrast coronagraphic imaging of the luminous debris disk around the nearby, young A star HD 32297 resolved at a projected separation of r = 0.3-2.5 arcse (approx 35-280 AU). The disk is highly warped to the north and exhibits a complex, "wavy" surface brightness profile interior to r approx 110 AU, where the peaks/plateaus in the profiles are shifted between the NE and SW disk lobes. The SW side of the disk is 50 - 100% brighter at r = 35 - 80 AU, and the location of its peak brightness roughly coincides with the disk's mm emission peak. Spectral energy distribution modeling suggests that HD 32297 has at least two dust populations that may originate from two separate belts likely at different locations, possibly at distances coinciding with the surface brightness peaks. A disk model for a single dust belt including a phase function with two components and a 5-10 AU pericenter offset explains the disk's warped structure and reproduces some of the surface brightness profile's shape (e.g. the overall "wavy" profile, the SB peak/plateau shifts) but more poorly reproduces the disk's brightness asymmetry. Although there may be alternate explanations, agreement between the SW disk brightness peak and disk's peak mm emission is consistent with an overdensity of very small, sub-blowout-sized dust and large, 0.1-1 mm-sized grains at approx 45 AU tracing the same parent population of planetesimals. New near-IR and submm observations may be able to clarify whether even more complex grain scattering properties or dynamical sculpting by an unseen planet are required to explain HD 32297's disk structure.
Document ID
20120015313
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Preprint (Draft being sent to journal)
Authors
Currie, Thayne
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Rodigas, Timothy J.
(Arizona Univ. Tucson, AZ, United States)
Debes, John
(Space Telescope Science Inst. Baltimore, MD, United States)
Plavchan, Peter
(California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Kuchner, Marc
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Jang-Condell, Hannah
(Wyoming Univ. Laramie, WY, United States)
Wilner, David
(Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Cambridge, MA, United States)
Andrews, Sean
(Wyoming Univ. Laramie, WY, United States)
Kraus, Adam
(Hawaii Univ. Honolulu, HI, United States)
Dahm, Scott
(Keck Observatory Mauna Kea, HI, United States)
Robitaille, Thomas
(Max-Planck-Inst. Heidelberg, Germany)
Date Acquired
August 26, 2013
Publication Date
July 18, 2012
Subject Category
Astronomy
Report/Patent Number
GSFC.JA.6976.2012
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNH06CC03B
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.
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