Keck Adaptive Optics Observations of the Protostellar Disk around Radio Source I in the Orion Kleinmann-Low Nebula

Abstract

We have made the first detection of a near-infrared counterpart associated with the disk around Radio Source "I," a massive protostar in the Kleinmann-Low Nebula in Orion using imaging with laser guide star adaptive optics on the Keck II telescope. The infrared emission is evident in images acquired using L' (3.8 microns) and Ms (4.7 microns) filters and is not detectable at K' (2.1 microns). The observed morphology strongly suggests that we are seeing some combination of scattered and thermal light emanating from the disk. The disk is also manifest in the L'/Ms flux ratio image. We interpret the near-infrared emission as the illuminated surface of a nearly edge-on disk, oriented so that only the northern face is visible; the opposite surface remains hidden by the disk. We do not see infrared radiation associated directly with the star proposed to be associated with Source "I." The data also suggest that there is a cavity above and below the disk that is oriented perpendicular to the disk, and is sculpted by the known, strong outflow from the inner disk of Source I. We compare our data to models of a protostar with a surrounding disk, envelope, and wind-blown cavity in order to elucidate the nature of the disk around Radio Source I.

22 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication to ApJ

References in corpus (9)

• The distance to the Orion Nebula
• Monte Carlo radiative transfer in protoplanetary disks
• Monitoring the Large Proper Motions of Radio Sources in the Orion BN/KL Region
• Imaging the Ionized Disk of the High-Mass Protostar Orion-I
• Discovery of an Optically Thick, Edge-on Disk around the Herbig Ae star PDS 144N
• Identifying the outflow driving sources in Orion-KL
• ALMA observations of the outflow from the Source I in the Orion-KL region
• Hubble Space Telescope NICMOS Polarization Measurements of OMC-1
• Silicate Emission Profiles from Low-Mass Protostellar Disks in the Orion Nebula: Evidence for Growth and Thermal Processing of Grains

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• The ALMA View of the OMC1 Explosion in Orion
• Hot Molecular Circumstellar Disk around Massive Protostar Orion Source I
• Dynamical Evidence for a Magnetocentrifugal Wind from a 20 Msun Binary Young Stellar Object
• Stellar Proper Motions in the Orion Nebula Cluster
• ALMA Imaging of Millimeter/Submillimeter Continuum Emission in Orion KL
• ALMA Observation of the 658 GHz Vibrationally Excited H${}_2$O Maser in Orion KL Source I