Reflected Light from Sand Grains in the Terrestrial Zone of a Protoplanetary Disk

Abstract

We show that grains have grown to ~mm size (sand sized) or larger in the terrestrial zone (within ~3 AU) of the protoplanetary disk surrounding the 3 Myr old binary star KH 15D. We also argue that the reflected light in the system reaches us by back scattering off the far side of the same ring whose near side causes the obscuration.

22 pages, 5 figures. To be published in Nature, March 13, 2008. Contains a Supplement

References in corpus (16)

• HST/ACS Multiband Coronagraphic Imaging of the Debris Disk around Beta Pictoris
• The Circumbinary Ring of KH 15D
• KH 15D: Gradual Occultation of a Pre-Main-Sequence Binary
• Eclipses by a Circumstellar Dust Feature in the Pre-Main Sequence Star KH15D
• Large dust grains in the inner region of circumstellar disks
• The Orbit and Occultations of KH 15D
• Fine Structure in the Circumstellar Environment of a Young, Solar-like Star: the Unique Eclipses of KH 15D
• Water vapour and hydrogen in the terrestrial-planet-forming region of a protoplanetary disk
• KH 15D: A Spectroscopic Binary
• The History of the Mysterious Eclipses of KH 15D: Asiago Observatory, 1967-1982
• The Disappearing Act of KH 15D: Photometric Results from 1995 to 2004
• Natural Coronagraphic Observations of the Eclipsing T Tauri System KH 15D: Evidence for Accretion and Bipolar Outflow in a WTTS
• Spectropolarimetry and Modeling of the Eclipsing T Tauri Star KH 15D
• H${}_2$ Emission Nebulosity Associated with KH 15D
• The History of the Mysterious Eclipses of KH 15D II. Asiago, Kiso, Kitt Peak, Mt. Wilson, Palomar, Tautenburg and Rozhen Observatories, 1954-97
• Near-Infrared Photometric Monitoring of a Pre-Main-Sequence Object KH 15D

Cited by in corpus (15)

• The Inner Rim Structures of Protoplanetary Discs
• A Spitzer View of the Young Open Cluster NGC 2264
• A Candidate Young Massive Planet in Orbit around the Classical T Tauri Star CI Tau
• Time-Series Photometry of Stars in and around the Lagoon Nebula. I. Rotation Periods of 290 Low-Mass Pre-Main-Sequence Stars in NGC 6530
• Locating the Trailing Edge of the Circumbinary Ring in the KH 15D System
• The Light Curve of the Weakly-Accreting T Tauri Binary KH 15D from 2005-10: Insights into the Nature of its Protoplanetary Disk
• Bipolar jets produced by a spectroscopic binary
• An occultation event in a triple post-AGB star
• Complex Variability of the H$\alpha$ Emission Line Profile of the T Tauri Binary System KH 15D: The Influence of Orbital Phase, Occultation by the Circumbinary Disk, and Accretion Phenomenae
• On-Sky Demonstration of a Linear Band-limited Mask with Application to Visual Binary Stars
• An unusual very low-mass high-amplitude pre-main sequence periodic variable
• Extending the Model of KH 15D: Estimating the Effects of Forward Scattering and Curvature of the Occulting Ring Edge
• Gas Absorption in the KH 15D System: Further Evidence for Dust Settling in the Circumbinary Disk
• The young low-mass star ISO-Oph-50: Extreme variability induced by a clumpy, evolving circumstellar disk
• The spectral type of CHS7797 - an intriguing very low mass periodic variable in the Orion Nebula Cluster