Fomalhaut, a bright star 7.7 parsecs (25 light-years) from Earth, harbors a belt of cold dust with a structure consistent with gravitational sculpting by an orbiting planet. Here, we present optical observations of an exoplanet candidate, Fomalhaut b. Fomalhaut b lies about 119 astronomical units (AU) from the star and 18 AU of the dust belt, matching predictions of its location. Hubble Space Telescope observations separated by 1.73 years reveal counterclockwise orbital motion. Dynamical models of the interaction between the planet and the belt indicate that the planet's mass is at most three times that of Jupiter; a higher mass would lead to gravitational disruption of the belt, matching predictions of its location. The flux detected at 0.8 mum is also consistent with that of a planet with mass no greater than a few times that of Jupiter. The brightness at 0.6 mum and the lack of detection at longer wavelengths suggest that the detected flux may include starlight reflected off a circumplanetary disk, with dimension comparable to the orbits of the Galilean satellites. We also observe variability of unknown origin at 0.6 mum.
We measure the morphology-density relation ( MDR) and morphology-radius relation (MRR) for galaxies in seven z $ 1 clusters that have been observed with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) on board the Hubble Space Telescope. Simulations and independent comparisons of our visually derived morphologies indicate that ACS allows one to distinguish between E, S0, and spiral morphologies down to z 850 ¼ 24, corresponding to L /L Ã ¼ 0:21 and 0.30 at z ¼ 0:83 and 1.24, respectively. We adopt density and radius estimation methods that match those used at lower redshift in order to study the evolution of the MDR and MRR. We detect a change in the MDR between 0:8 < z < 1:2 and that observed at z $ 0, consistent with recent work; specifically, the growth in the bulge-dominated galaxy fraction, f EþS0 , with increasing density proceeds less rapidly at z $ 1 than it does at z $ 0. At z $ 1 and AE ! 500 galaxies Mpc À2 , we find h f EþS0 i ¼ 0:72 AE 0:10. At z $ 0, an E+S0 population fraction of this magnitude occurs at densities about 5 times smaller. The evolution in the MDR is confined to densities AE k 40 galaxies Mpc À2 and appears to be primarily due to a deficit of S0 galaxies and an excess of Sp+Irr galaxies relative to the local galaxy population. The f E -density relation exhibits no significant evolution between z ¼ 1 and 0. We find mild evidence to suggest that the MDR is dependent on the bolometric X-ray luminosity of the intracluster medium. Implications for the evolution of the disk galaxy population in dense regions are discussed in the context of these observations.
HH 30 in Taurus has been imaged with the Hubble Space T elescope WFPC2. The images show in reÑected light a Ñared disk with a radius of about 250 AU that obscures the protostar. The disk resembles detailed accretion disk models that constrain its density distribution and show that its inclination is less than 10¡. There are bipolar emission-line jets perpendicular to the disk, a very clear demonstration of the standard paradigm for accretion disk and jet systems. However, asymmetries in the light distribution show that the disk has not completely settled into a quasi-equilibrium accretion state, or that some of the observed scattering is from an asymmetric envelope. The emission-line jet itself is resolved into a number of knots with typical lengths and separations of much smaller and more numerous than 0A .4, indicated by lower resolution ground-based studies. There are indications of still Ðner structures in the jet all the way to the resolution limit ofThe knots have proper motions ranging from 100 to 300 0A .1. km s~1 and are therefore generated at the surprisingly high rate of about 0.4 knots per jet per year. The jet appears to be collimated within a cone of opening angle 3¡ and can be seen to within 30 AU of the star.Both single-and multiple-scattering disk models have a range of possible solutions, but by requiring pressure support and temperature equilibrium, a self-consistent model emerges. There is evidence for pressure support because the disk appears to have a Gaussian height proÐle. The temperature at each point in the disk is determined by the disk geometry, which in turn Ðxes the temperature in a selfconsistent manner. The extinction to the protostar is unknown but constrained to be greater than 24 mag. The optical properties of the scattering grains in the disk are determined and found to imply a large scattering asymmetry, but they seem to follow the interstellar reddening law. The absolute magnitude and colors of the unseen protostar, which has a brightness in the I bandpass of about 0.16 times solar and is very red, are obtained. The disk mass is about 0.006 times solar and has an expected lifetime of about 105 yr.
We analyze deep multicolor Advanced Camera images of the largest known gravitational lens, A1689. Radial and tangential arcs delineate the critical curves in unprecedented detail, and many small counterimages are found near the center of mass. We construct a flexible light deflection field to predict the appearance and positions of counterimages. The model is refined as new counterimages are identified and incorporated to improve the model, yielding a total of 106 images of 30 multiply lensed background galaxies, spanning a wide redshift range, 1:0 < z < 5:5. The resulting mass map is more circular in projection than the clumpy distribution of cluster galaxies, and the light is more concentrated than the mass within r < 50 kpc h À1 . The projected mass profile flattens steadily toward the center with a shallow mean slope of dlog AE=dlog r ' À0:55 AE 0:1, over the observed range r < 250 kpc h À1 , matching well an NFW profile, but with a relatively high concentration, C vir ¼ 8:2 þ2:1 À1:8 . A softened isothermal profile (r core ¼ 20 AE 2 00 ) is not conclusively excluded, illustrating that lensing constrains only projected quantities. Regarding cosmology, we clearly detect the purely geometric increase of bend angles with redshift. The dependence on the cosmological parameters is weak owing to the proximity of A1689, z ¼ 0:18, constraining the locus, M þ Ã 1:2. This consistency with standard cosmology provides independent support for our model, because the redshift information is not required to derive an accurate mass map. Similarly, the relative fluxes of the multiple images are reproduced well by our best-fitting lens model.
We present images of the Crab synchrotron nebula obtained with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) on board the Hubble Space Telescope. These data are compared with ROSAT HRI images, and with 0':5 resolution Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) images previously published by van den Bergh & Pritchet (1989). These data strengthen the emerging picture of the Crab as a cylindrically symmetrical object with an axis running southeast to northwest, and inclined by ~20°-30° with respect to the plane of the sky. Identification of structure very near to the pulsar which shares this symmetry helps to better establish the link between the symmetry axis of the nebula and the spin axis of the pulsar. We report the discovery of a bright knot of visible emission located 0':65 to the southeast of the pulsar, along the axis of the system. This knot and a second knot 3':8 from the pulsar appear to be present but not well resolved in the 1988 CFHT image, indicating that they are persistent structures. The inner knot is interpreted as a shock in the pulsar wind ~ 1500 AU above the pole of the pulsar. No corresponding knots are seen to the northwest of the pulsar, which may indicate that the characteristics of the wind from the two poles are not symmetrical. The closest of the "wisps" to the northwest of the pulsar appear to close into a ringlike "halo" encircling the axis of the nebula. The wisps are resolved, with widths of ~ 0':2. This allows• calculation of their volumes and volume emissivities, and in turn their equipartition fields and pressures. Equipartition pressures calculated for the knots and wisps are typically 10 to as much as 80 times the equipartition pressure calculated for the nebula as a whole. The wisps show significant substructure which changed considerably between 1988 and 1994. Previous reports of relativistic motions of the wisps were probably due to changes in the unresolved substructure of these features. Comparison of the CFHT and WFPC2 images show remarkable changes in the inner nebula, but inferences about physical conditions based on this comparison are limited by the resolution of the CFHT data and the long 5 year baseline between the images. The structure of the nebula in 1994 may be inconsistent with the recent model by Gallant & Arons (1994). Very fine fibrous texture visible in the WFPC2 image follows the structure of the X-ray torus. A puzzling anticorrelation is seen between the X-ray and visible surface brightness through part of the torus. Long contiguous low contrast features with widths of ~ 1"-2" are seen to run throughout the volume of the nebula. These features are seen to move outward through the nebula at velocities in excess of homologous expansion. These features trace the magnetic structure of the nebula; they are probably due to differences in emissivity accompanying varying degrees of departure from equipartition at roughly constant total pressure. Visible fibers "drapt< over" and appear to expand away from an X-ray counterjet to the northwest of the pulsar, supporting th...
Hubble Space Telescope images of HK Tauri reveal that the companion star in this 2.4" (340 AU) pre-main sequence binary system is an entirely nebulous object at visual wavelengths. HK Tau/c appears as two elongated reflection nebulosities separated by a dark lane. Near-infrared adaptive optics observations made at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope show a similar morphology, and no directly visible star at X 5 2.2 pm. HE(Tau/c is strikingly similar to scattered light models of an optically thick circumstellar disk seen close to edge-on, and to the HST images of HH 30 (Burrows et al. 1996). HE(Tau/c is therefore the first disk to be clearly resolved around an individual star in a young binary system. The disk properties have been constrained by fitting model reflection nebulae to the HST images. The disk has a radius of 105 AU, inclination of about 5", scale height of 3.8 AU at T = 50 AU, and is flared. The absence of a point source in the near-IR requires Av > 50 mag toward the unseen central star. The thickness of the dark lane establishes a disk mass near lop4 Ma (w 0.1 M J~~~~~~ of dust and gas, if the dust grains have interstellar properties and remain fully mixed vertically. With the observed disk radius equal to only 1/3 the projected separation of the binary, there is a strong possibility that tidal truncation of the circumsecondary disk has occurred in this system.
Aims. We present a panchromatic study, involving a multiple technique approach, of the circumstellar disc surrounding the T Tauri star IM Lupi (Sz 82). Methods. We have undertaken a comprehensive observational study of IM Lupi using photometry, spectroscopy, millimetre interferometry and multi-wavelength imaging. For the first time, the disc is resolved from optical and near-infrared wavelengths in scattered light, to the millimetre regime in thermal emission. Our data-set, in conjunction with existing photometric data, provides an extensive coverage of the spectral energy distribution, including a detailed spectrum of the silicate emission bands. We have performed a simultaneous modelling of the various observations, using the radiative transfer code MCFOST, and analysed a grid of models over a large fraction of the parameter space via Bayesian inference. Results. We have constructed a model that can reproduce all of the observations of the disc. Our analysis illustrates the importance of combining a wide range of observations in order to fully constrain the disc model, with each observation providing a strong constraint only on some aspects of the disc structure and dust content. Quantitative evidence of dust evolution in the disc is obtained: grain growth up to millimetre-sized particles, vertical stratification of dust grains with micrometric grains close to the disc surface and larger grains which have settled towards the disc midplane, and possibly the formation of fluffy aggregates and/or ice mantles around grains.
We present F435W (B), F606W ( broad V ), and F814W ( broad I ) coronagraphic images of the debris disk around Pictoris obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys. These images provide the most photometrically accurate and morphologically detailed views of the disk between 30 and 300 AU from the star ever recorded in scattered light. We confirm that the previously reported warp in the inner disk is a distinct secondary disk inclined by $5 from the main disk. The projected spine of the secondary disk coincides with the isophotal inflections, or ''butterfly asymmetry,'' previously seen at large distances from the star. We also confirm that the opposing extensions of the main disk have different position angles, but we find that this ''wing-tilt asymmetry'' is centered on the star rather than offset from it, as previously reported. The main disk's northeast extension is linear from 80 to 250 AU, but the southwest extension is distinctly bowed with an amplitude of $1 AU over the same region. Both extensions of the secondary disk appear linear, but not collinear, from 80 to 150 AU. Within $120 AU of the star, the main disk is $50% thinner than previously reported. The surface brightness profiles along the spine of the main disk are fitted with four distinct radial power laws between 40 and 250 AU, while those of the secondary disk between 80 and 150 AU are fitted with single power laws. These discrepancies suggest that the two disks have different grain compositions or size distributions. The F606W/ F435W and F814W/ F435W flux ratios of the composite disk are nonuniform and asymmetric about both projected axes of the disk. The disk's northwest region appears 20%-30% redder than its southeast region, which is inconsistent with the notion that forward scattering from the nearer northwest side of the disk should diminish with increasing wavelength. Within $120 AU, the m F435W À m F606W and m F435W À m F814W colors along the spine of the main disk are $10% and $20% redder, respectively, than those of Pic. These colors increasingly redden beyond $120 AU, becoming 25% and 40% redder, respectively, than the star at 250 AU. These measurements overrule previous determinations that the disk is composed of neutrally scattering grains. The change in color gradient at $120 AU nearly coincides with the prominent inflection in the surface brightness profile at $115 AU and the expected waterice sublimation boundary. We compare the observed red colors within $120 AU with the simulated colors of nonicy grains having a radial number density /r À3 and different compositions, porosities, and minimum grain sizes. The observed colors are consistent with those of compact or moderately porous grains of astronomical silicate and /or graphite with sizes k0.15-0.20 m, but the colors are inconsistent with the blue colors expected from grains with porosities k90%. The increasingly red colors beyond the ice sublimation zone may indicate the condensation of icy mantles on the refractory grains, or they may reflect...
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.