Other
Scientific paper
May 1999
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1999aas...194.6902b&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, 194th AAS Meeting, #69.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 31, p.934
Other
Scientific paper
We present high resolution, near-IR spectroscopic observations of three T Tauri stars in the v = 1-0 S(1) 2.1218 mu m emission line of molecular hydrogen. Our data were collected using CSHELL on the IRTF on 1999, February 23, UT. All three stars searched for H_2 (TW Hya, HD 98800, and CD-33(deg) 7795) reside in the nearby (D ~ 50 pc) TW Hya Association (Kastner et al. 1997, Science, 277, 67). We find that one of the three, TW Hya, likely displays H_2 emission in the 2.1218 mu m line. TW Hya is apparently surrounded by a circumstellar disk containing gas (Zuckerman et al. 1995, Nature 373, 494) and dust (Weintraub et al. 1989, ApJ, 340, L69), but shows no optical jets, molecular outflow, or other phenomena that would produce shocked H_2 emission. In addition, the central velocity of the apparent H_2 line falls, to within the measurement errors, at the velocity of disk molecular emission previously detected toward TW Hya (Kastner et al. 1997), and the H_2 line is not obviously resolved. Thus, it appears that the H_2 emission is not excited by shocks. Rather, the 2.1218 mu m emission likely originates in the disk of TW Hya and is excited via flourescence, due either to direct UV photoexcitation (e.g., Black and van Dishoeck 1987, ApJ, 322, 412) or to X-ray ionization of H_2 (Maloney et al. 1996, ApJ, 466, 561; Tine et al. 1997, Ap J, 481, 282). The latter possibility is especially appealing, as TW Hya is a bright X-ray source (Kastner et al. 1997). Hence, we propose that our detection of H_2 emission toward TW Hya demonstrates that X-ray induced flourescence can occur in gaseous disks around X-ray bright T Tauri stars.
Bary Jeffery S.
Kastner Joel H.
Weintraub David A.
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