Disk Evolution Study Through Imaging of Nearby Young Stars (DESTINYS): Late infall causing disk misalignment and dynamic structures in SU Aur

Abstract

Gas-rich circumstellar disks are the cradles of planet formation. As such, their evolution will strongly influence the resulting planet population. In the ESO DESTINYS large program, we study these disks within the first 10 Myr of their development with near-infrared scattered light imaging. Here we present VLT/SPHERE polarimetric observations of the nearby class II system SU Aur in which we resolve the disk down to scales of ~7 au. In addition to the new SPHERE observations, we utilize VLT/NACO, HST/STIS and ALMA archival data. The new SPHERE data show the disk around SU Aur and extended dust structures in unprecedented detail. We resolve several dust tails connected to the Keplerian disk. By comparison with ALMA data, we show that these dust tails represent material falling onto the disk. The disk itself shows an intricate spiral structure and a shadow lane, cast by an inner, misaligned disk component. Our observations suggest that SU Aur is undergoing late infall of material, which can explain the observed disk structures. SU Aur is the clearest observational example of this mechanism at work and demonstrates that late accretion events can still occur in the class II phase, thereby significantly affecting the evolution of circumstellar disks. Constraining the frequency of such events with additional observations will help determine whether this process is responsible for the spin-orbit misalignment in evolved exoplanet systems.

18 pages, 12 figures, published in ApJL on 18-02-2021

References in corpus (22)

• An Optical Spectroscopic Study of T Tauri Stars. I. Photospheric Properties
• Shadows cast by a warp in the HD 142527 protoplanetary disk
• Shadows and spirals in the protoplanetary disk HD 100453
• Direct detection of scattered light gaps in the transitional disk around HD 97048 with VLT/SPHERE
• The polarimetric imaging mode of VLT/SPHERE/IRDIS II: Characterization and correction of instrumental polarization effects
• Misaligned Disks in the Binary Protostar IRS 43
• Signatures of broken protoplanetary discs in scattered light and in sub-millimetre observations
• The polarimetric imaging mode of VLT/SPHERE/IRDIS I: Description, data reduction and observing strategy
• Episodic accretion: the interplay of infall and disc instabilities
• Exploring dust around HD142527 down to 0.025" / 4au using SPHERE/ZIMPOL
• Cloudlet capture by Transitional Disk and FU Orionis stars
• SPHERE IRDIS and IFS astrometric strategy and calibration
• Possible evidence of ongoing planet formation in AB Aurigae. A showcase of the SPHERE/ALMA synergy
• Multiple spiral arms in the disk around intermediate-mass binary HD 34700A
• Gap, shadows, spirals, streamers: SPHERE observations of binary-disk interactions in GG Tau A
• Are protoplanetary disks born with vortices? -- Rossby wave instability driven by protostellar infall
• Scattered light mapping of protoplanetary disks
• GW Ori: Interactions Between a Triple-star System and its Circumtriple Disk in Action
• A Tail Structure Associated with Protoplanetary Disk around SU Aurigae
• Binary-induced spiral arms inside the disc cavity of AB Aurigae
• Near-IR High-Resolution Imaging Polarimetry of the SU Aur Disk: Clues for Tidal Tails?
• Dusty disk winds at the sublimation rim of the highly inclined, low mass YSO SU Aurigae

Cited by in corpus (62)

• Stellar obliquities in exoplanetary systems
• PRODIGE -- Envelope to disk with NOEMA I. A 3000 au streamer feeding a Class I protostar
• Misaligned disks induced by infall
• Early Planet Formation in Embedded Disks (eDisk). II. Limited Dust Settling and Prominent Snow Surfaces in the Edge-on Class I Disk IRAS 04302+2247
• PRODIGE -- Envelope to Disk with NOEMA II. Small-scale temperature structure and a streamer feeding the SVS13A protobinary using CH3CN and DCN
• Reflections on nebulae around young stars: A systematic search for late-stage infall of material onto Class II disks
• A cold accretion flow onto one component of a multiple protostellar system
• A likely flyby of binary protostar Z CMa caught in action
• Survey of Orion Disks with ALMA (SODA) I: Cloud-level demographics of 873 protoplanetary disks
• WIde Separation Planets In Time (WISPIT): A Gap-clearing Planet in a Multi-ringed Disk around the Young Solar-type Star WISPIT 2
• Flow of gas detected from beyond the filaments to protostellar scales in Barnard 5
• Determining Dust Properties in Protoplanetary Disks: SED-derived Masses and Settling With ALMA
• Probing the Physics of Star-Formation (ProPStar): II. The first systematic search for streamers toward protostars
• Observed polarized scattered light phase functions of planet-forming disks
• Mapping the merging zone of late infall in the AB Aur planet-forming system
• Disk Evolution Study Through Imaging of Nearby Young Stars (DESTINYS): A Panchromatic View of DO Tau's Complex Kilo-au Environment
• Molecular Mapping of DR Tau's Protoplanetary Disk, Envelope, Outflow, and Large-Scale Spiral Arm
• Signs of late infall and possible planet formation around DR Tau using VLT/SPHERE and LBTI/LMIRCam
• Constraints on the (re-)orientation of star-disk systems through infall
• Chemical modeling of Orion Nebula Cluster disks: evidence for massive, compact gas disks with ISM-like gas-to-dust ratios
• Spatially correlated stellar accretion in the Lupus star forming region: Evidence for ongoing infall from the interstellar medium
• One-third of Sun-like stars are born with misaligned planet-forming disks
• Iterative Angular Differential Imaging (IADI): An exploration of recovering disk structures in scattered light with an iterative ADI approach
• PRODIGE -- envelope to disk with NOEMA. IV. An infalling gas bridge surrounding two Class 0/I systems in L1448N
• PRODIGE -- Envelope to Disk with NOEMA III. The origin of complex organic molecule emission in SVS13A
• Disk Evolution Study Through Imaging of Nearby Young Stars (DESTINYS): HD 34700 A unveils an inner ring
• Origin and Evolution of Angular Momentum of Class II Disks
• Disk Evolution Study Through Imaging of Nearby Young Stars (DESTINYS): Diverse outcomes of binary-disk interactions
• Disk Evolution Study Through Imaging of Nearby Young Stars (DESTINYS): Scattered light detection of a possible disk wind in RY Tau
• Feasibility of detecting shadows in disks induced by infall
• An extended scattered light disk around AT Pyx -- Possible planet formation in a cometary globule
• Disk Evolution Study Through Imaging of Nearby Young Stars (DESTINYS): Characterization of the young star T CrA and its circumstellar environment
• Karhunen-Loève Data Imputation in High Contrast Imaging
• High-resolution Pan-STARRS and SMA observations of IRAS 23077+6707: A giant edge-on protoplanetary disk
• Intermediate mass T Tauri disk masses and a comparison to their Herbig disk descendants
• Magnetohydrodynamic Model of Late Accretion onto a Protoplanetary Disk: Cloudlet Encounter Event
• Imaging the warped dusty disk wind environment of SU Aurigae with MIRC-X
• Asymmetric Signatures of Warps in Edge-on Disks
• Resolved Gas Temperatures and 12C/13C ratios in SVS13A from ALMA Observations of CH3CN and CH3-13-CN
• Search for Stellar Flybys in the Sco-Cen OB Association with the Gaia DR2
• Late accretion offers pathway to misaligned disk around the planet-hosting IRAS 04125+2902
• ANTIHEROES-PRODIGE: Quantifying the connection from envelope to disk with the IRAM 30m telescope and NOEMA I. Attack of the streamers: L1448N's fight for order in the chaos
• Multiwavelength high-resolution polarimetric imaging of second-generation disc around post-AGB binary IRAS 08544-4431 with SPHERE
• Anatomy of the Class I protostar L1489 IRS with NOEMA - II. A disk replenished by a massive streamer
• Density streams in the disc winds of Classical T Tauri stars
• Planet-forming disks and their environment across regions and time from the full NIR census
• Scattering and sublimation: a multi-scale view of $\mu$m-sized dust in the inclined disc of HD 145718
• Simulation of the Free Fall of a Gas Stream on a Protoplanetary Disk
• Emergence of streamers in simulations of late infall
• Polarimetric differential imaging with VLT/NACO. A comprehensive PDI pipeline for NACO data (PIPPIN)
• Molecules with ALMA at Planet-forming Scales (MAPS) XIX. Spiral Arms, a Tail, and Diffuse Structures Traced by CO around the GM Aur Disk
• Warps survive beyond fly-by encounters in protoplanetary disks. RW Aur A as a case study
• Disk Evolution Study Through Imaging of Nearby Young Stars (DESTINYS): V721 CrA and BN CrA have wide and structured disks in polarised IR
• SPHERE/ZIMPOL insights into discs around evolved stars: arcs, asymmetries and dust properties
• Gaps and Rings: A Near-Universal Trait of Extended Protoplanetary Discs
• The SPHERE view of multiple star formation
• Probing inner and outer disk misalignments in transition disks
• Measuring Dust Masses of Protoplanetary Disks in Serpens and L1641/L1647 with ALMA
• Non-ideal MHD and protostellar feedback effects on disc formation and evolution in numerical simulations of star cluster formation
• Scattered light signatures of flyby-induced warps in protoplanetary discs
• A Streamer Driving Misalignment in the Circumtriple Disk of GW Ori
• Spiral formation caused by late infall onto protoplanetary disks