The Circumstellar Gas of β Pictoris: CO and C 1

Details The Circumstellar Gas of β Pictoris: CO and C 1 The Circumstellar Gas of β Pictoris: CO and C 1

Dec 1999

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1999aas...195.2501r&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, 195th AAS Meeting, #25.01; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 31, p.1409

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

β Pictoris, the most extensively studied of the young planetary systems discovered in the last decade and a half, was early found to be surrounded by an edge-on disk of gas and dust. Gas at close to the radial velocity of the star is identified in all observations and called the stable gas component. In addition, spectra of β Pictoris show variable redshifted and blueshifted absorption features, at velocities ranging from tens to hundreds of km s-1 relative to the star. These features are the signatures of km-sized, possibly comet-like, bodies falling toward the star. C 1 and CO have been observed in the circumstellar disk. Since both these species should be destroyed by interstellar UV photons on short time scales, a secondary source for these gasses must exist. HST STIS high resolution echelle absorption spectra of these important species were obtained on December 6 and 19, 1997. These data will be used to illustrate the general properties of the circumstellar gas and to further explore the complicated nature of the β Pictoris system. Most importantly, we find that photodissociation of CO is not the primary source of C 1 gas in the disk, contrary to previous suggestion. We also observe absorption features arising from the excited, metastable 1D state of C 1 for the first time; the possible significance of these unique features will be discussed. Support for this work at JHU was provided by grant GO-07512.01-96A from the Space Telescope Science Institute.

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