The Astrophysical Journal Letters (Jan 2024)

High-resolution Pan-STARRS and SMA Observations of IRAS 23077+6707: A Giant Edge-on Protoplanetary Disk

  • Kristina Monsch,
  • Joshua Bennett Lovell,
  • Ciprian T. Berghea,
  • Gordian Edenhofer,
  • Garrett K. Keating,
  • Sean M. Andrews,
  • Ammar Bayyari,
  • Jeremy J. Drake,
  • David J. Wilner

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ad3bb0
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 967, no. 1
p. L2

Abstract

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We present resolved images of IRAS 23077+6707 (“Dracula’s Chivito”) in 1.3 mm/225 GHz thermal dust and CO gas emission with the Submillimeter Array (SMA) and optical (0.5–0.8 μ m) scattered light with the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS). The Pan-STARRS data show a bipolar distribution of optically scattering dust that is characteristic for disks observed at high inclinations. Its scattered light emission spans ∼14″, with two highly asymmetric filaments extending along the upper bounds of each nebula by ∼9″. The SMA data measure 1.3 mm continuum dust as well as ^12 CO, ^13 CO, and C ^18 O J = 2 − 1 line emission over 12″–14″ extents, with the gas presenting the typical morphology of a disk in Keplerian rotation, in both position–velocity space and in each CO line spectrum. IRAS 23077+6707 has no reported distance estimate, but if it is located in the Cepheus star-forming region (180–800 pc), it would have a radius spanning thousands of astronomical units. Taken together, we infer IRAS 23077+6707 to be a giant and gas-rich edge-on protoplanetary disk, which to our knowledge is the largest in extent so far discovered.

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