Volatile Gasses in the Beta Pictoris Circumstellar Disk

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We present the first detection of the important volatile species CII, CIII, and most importantly, OI, in the Beta Pic circumstellar disk. These species are seen in absorption against broad chromospheric emission lines in stellar spectra obtained with the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE). They are present in the stable circumstellar gas component; additional redshifted components arising from star-grazing planetesimals are seen in the CII absorption lines. Combined with a previous measurement of CI gas (Roberge et al. 2000), the CII and CIII measurements complete the total inventory of stable atomic carbon gas in the disk. OI is the only atomic oxygen species observed to date. The only other oxygen-bearing species observed is CO, dissociation of which accounts for less than 2% of the total carbon gas (Roberge et al. 2000).
Previous observations of the Beta Pic circumstellar gas were primarily of metallic species like FeII and SiII. These new measurements permit a much more complete inventory of the Beta Pic circumstellar gas, which, like the dust, is produced by the destruction of planetary bodies. We present a new compilation of the observed bulk gas abundance and composition. The bulk composition is compared to the composition of various astronomical objects (e.g. Sun, comets, meteorites). The inferred gas density is compared to recent theoretical constraints on the circumstellar gas abundance from analysis of the gas dynamics (Brandeker et al. 2004) and the dust dynamics (Thebault & Augereau 2005).

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