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First Scattered-Light Images of the Gas-Rich Debris Disk Around 49 CetiWe present the first scattered-light images of the debris disk around 49 Ceti, a approximately 40 Myr A1 main-sequence star at 59 pc, famous for hosting two massive dust belts as well as large quantities of atomic and molecular gas. The outer disk is revealed in reprocessed archival Hubble Space Telescope NICMOS-F110W images, as well as new coronagraphic H-band images from the Very Large Telescope SPHERE instrument. The disk extends from 1."1 (65 au) to 4." 6 (250 au) and is seen at an inclination of 73 deg, which refines previous measurements at lower angular resolution. We also report no companion detection larger than 3 MJup at projected separations beyond 20 au from the star (0." 34). Comparison between the F110W and H-band images is consistent with a gray color of 49 Ceti's dust, indicating grains larger than approximately greater than 2 micrometers. Our photometric measurements indicate a scattering efficiency/infrared excess ratio of 0.2-0.4, relatively low compared to other characterized debris disks. We find that 49 Ceti presents morphological and scattering properties very similar to the gas-rich HD 131835 system. From our constraint on the disk inclination we find that the atomic gas previously detected in absorption must extend to the inner disk, and that the latter must be depleted of CO gas. Building on previous studies, we propose a schematic view of the system describing the dust and gas structure around 49 Ceti and hypothetical scenarios for the gas nature and origin.
Document ID
20170007786
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Choquet, Elodie
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Milli, Julien
(European Southern Observatory Santiago, Chile)
Wahhaj, Zahed
(European Southern Observatory Santiago, Chile)
Soummer, Remi
(Space Telescope Science Inst. Baltimore, MD, United States)
Roberge, Aki
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD United States)
Augereau, Jean-Charles
(Universite Grenoble Alpes Saint Martin d'Heres, France)
Booth, Mark
(Friedrich-Schiller Univ. Jena, Germany)
Absil, Olivier
(Liege Univ. Belgium)
Boccaletti, Anthony
(Paris Univ. France)
Chen, Christine H.
(Space Telescope Science Inst. Baltimore, MD, United States)
Debes, John H.
(Space Telescope Science Inst. Baltimore, MD, United States)
Del Burgo, Carlos
(Instituto Nacional de Astrofisica, Optica y Electronica Tonantzintla, Mexico)
Dent, William R. F.
(European Southern Observatory Santiago, Chile)
Ertel, Steve
(Arizona Univ. Tucson, AZ, United States)
Girard, Julien H.
(European Southern Observatory Santiago, Chile)
Gofas-Salas, Elena
(Office National d'Etudes et de Recherches Aeronautiques Paris, France)
Golimowski, David A.
(Space Telescope Science Inst. Baltimore, MD, United States)
Gonzalez, Carlos A. Gomez
(Liege Univ. Belgium)
Hagan, J. Brendan
(Space Telescope Science Inst. Baltimore, MD, United States)
Hibon, Pascale
(European Southern Observatory Santiago, Chile)
Hines, Dean C.
(Space Telescope Science Inst. Baltimore, MD, United States)
Kennedy, Grant M.
(Cambridge Univ. Cambridge, United Kingdom)
Lagrange, Anne-Marie
(Universite Grenoble Alpes Saint Martin d'Heres, France)
Matra, Luca
(Cambridge Univ. Cambridge, United Kingdom)
Mawet, Dimitri
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Mouillet, David
(Universite Grenoble Alpes Saint Martin d'Heres, France)
N'Diaye, Mamadou
(Space Telescope Science Inst. Baltimore, MD, United States)
Perrin, Marshall D.
(Space Telescope Science Inst. Baltimore, MD, United States)
Pinte, Christophe
(Universite Grenoble Alpes Saint Martin d'Heres, France)
Pueyo, Laurent
(Space Telescope Science Inst. Baltimore, MD, United States)
Rajan, Abhijith
(Arizona State Univ. Phoenix, AZ, United States)
Schneider, Glenn
(Arizona Univ. Tucson, AZ, United States)
Wolff, Schuyler
(Johns Hopkins Univ. Baltimore, MD, United States)
Wyatt, Mark
(Cambridge Univ. Cambridge, United Kingdom)
Date Acquired
August 17, 2017
Publication Date
January 9, 2017
Publication Information
Publication: The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Publisher: The American Astronomical Society
Volume: 834
Issue: 2
ISSN: 2041-8205
e-ISSN: 2041-8213
Subject Category
Astrophysics
Instrumentation And Photography
Report/Patent Number
GSFC-E-DAA-TN45572
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NAS5-26555
CONTRACT_GRANT: ERC 337569
CONTRACT_GRANT: CONACyT CB-2012-183007
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
49 Ceti

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