Color PS1 image (giy) of Chivito from Dracula. Credit: arXiv (2024). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2402.01063
By analyzing images obtained with the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS), astronomers accidentally discovered a new protoplanetary disk located about 800 light years away. The discovery was reported in a paper published February 1 on the preprint server. arXiv.
A protoplanetary disk is a disk of dense gas and dust, orbiting a newly formed star. It is assumed that planets arise from the gradual accumulation of matter in such a structure. Discoveries and studies of protoplanetary disks are therefore essential to improve our understanding of planetary formation processes.
Now, a team of astronomers led by Ciprian T. Berghea of the United States Naval Observatory (USNO) in Washington, DC, has discovered a new such disk associated with an infrared source known as IRAS 23077 +6707. The discovery was made by inspecting Pan-STARRS data while working on a variability study of candidate active galactic nuclei (AGN).
“We identified a new very large protoplanetary disk from PS1 images and confirmed the consistency of the available data with an interpretation of the disk by radiative transfer and SED (spectral energy distribution) modeling,” the researchers write in the paper.
The new protoplanetary disk, nicknamed Dracula’s Chivito (because of its morphology resembling the chivito sandwich, the national dish of Uruguay), has an apparent size of about 11 arcseconds. This makes it the largest protoplanetary disk detected so far.
The mass of Dracula’s Chivito has been estimated to be around 0.2 solar masses and around 20% of this is made up of large grains. The disk, which is not associated with any known star-forming regions, has a tilt angle of 82 degrees and its radius has been calculated to be about 1,650 AU.
According to astronomers, the Pan-STARRS images show a late A-type star surrounded by a protoplanetary disk seen almost edge-on, and an almost dissipated envelope. It is therefore probably a young system, still surrounded by a very weak envelope but visible in the northern part.
The data collected suggests that the obscured star is twice as large as the sun and has a mass of around 2.5 solar masses. The star has a luminosity of about 11.46 solar luminosities, and its effective temperature has been estimated to be about 8,000 K.
Astronomers also report that Dracula’s Chivito shows the presence of faint “fangs” in the northern part. They interpret them as a dissipative envelope, noting that if this hypothesis is true, it confirms that Dracula’s Chivito and its star are a young system at the end of its Class I phase.
“It is probably a young system, still surrounded by the very weak envelope but still visible on the PS1 images in the northern part,” conclude the authors of the article.
More information:
Ciprian T. Berghea et al, Dracula’s Chivito: discovery of a large slice protoplanetary disk with Pan-STARRS, arXiv (2024). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2402.01063
Journal information:
arXiv
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Quote: Chivito de Dracula: New protoplanetary disk discovered with Pan-STARRS (February 12, 2024) retrieved on February 12, 2024 from
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