CaltechAUTHORS
Published July 28, 2008 | Version Published
Book Section - Chapter Open

The gas-dust transition region in young stellar objects: a sub-milli-arcsecond view through the eyes of CHARA

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon University of Michigan–Ann Arbor
  • 2. ROR icon University of Exeter
  • 3. ROR icon University of St Andrews
  • 4. ROR icon Georgia State University

Contributors

Abstract

Using the sub-milli-arcsecond resolution of the CHARA interferometer array and combining light with the 2-telescope combiner CHARA Classic, we have detected strong near-infrared (NIR) emission interior to the dust-sublimation radius of Herbig Ae stars MWC275 and AB Aur. The large contribution of this emission component, which we argue to be hot gas, to the total NIR spectral energy distribution (SED) is not predicted by current models of the dust evaporation front, indicating that the NIR disk is more complicated than expected. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the structure of the evaporation front in MWC275 is time variable, making single epoch, large uv coverage observations critical to decoding front geometry. With the commissioning of CHARA Michigan Phase Tracker in the summer of 2008, the Michigan Infrared Combiner (a 6 telescope combiner at CHARA) will become an ideal instrument for studying the evaporation front, achieving the required sensitivities to begin the first "true" interferometric imaging of the gas-dust transition region in young stellar objects (YSOs). Here, we summarize results on the evaporation front structure obtained with CHARA Classic and describe future prospects with CHARA MIRC in elucidating morphology of the gas-dust transition region.

Additional Information

© 2008 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). We acknowledge contributions from PJ Goldfinger, Christopher Farrington and Steve Golden. Research at the CHARA Array is supported by the National Science Foundation through grants AST 06-06958 and AST 03-52723 and by the Georgia State University through the offices of the Dean of the College of the Arts and Sciences and the Vice President for Research. This project was partially supported by NASA grant 050283. This publication makes use of NASA's Astrophysics Data System Abstract Service. The calibrator sizes were obtained with the fBol module of getCal, a package made available by the Michelson Science Center, California Institute of Technology (http://msc.caltech.edu).

Attached Files

Published - 70130U.pdf

Files

70130U.pdf

Files (244.0 kB)

Name Size
md5:6faf36a5740c768cbbdce49c2fc558c6
244.0 kB Preview Download

Additional details

Identifiers

Eprint ID
97144
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20190715-101902828

Funding

NSF
AST 06-06958
NSF
AST-03-52723
Georgia State University
NASA
050283

Dates

Created
2019-07-15
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2021-11-16
Created from EPrint's last_modified field

Caltech Custom Metadata

Caltech groups
Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC)
Series Name
Proceedings of SPIE
Series Volume or Issue Number
7013