Detection of H2 pure rotational line emission from the GG~Tau binary system

Abstract

We present the first detection of the low-lying pure rotational emission lines of H2 from circumstellar disks around T~Tauri stars, using the Short Wavelength Spectrometer on the Infrared Space Observatory. These lines provide a direct measure of the total amount of warm molecular gas in disks. The J=2->0 S(0) line at 28.218 mum and the J=3->1 S(1) line at 17.035 mum have been observed toward the double binary system GG Tau. Together with limits on the J=5->3 S(3) and J=7->5 S(5) lines, the data suggest the presence of gas at T_kin=110+-10 K with a mass of (3.6+-2.0)x10^-3 M_sol (3sigma). This amounts to ~3% of the total gas + dust mass of the circumbinary disk as imaged by millimeter interferometry, but is larger than the estimated mass of the circumstellar disk(s). Possible origins for the warm gas seen in H2 are discussed in terms of photon and wind-shock heating mechanisms of the circumbinary material, and comparisons with model calculations are made.

14 pages including 1 figure. To appear in Astrophysical Journal Letters

References in corpus (2)

• A Test of Pre-Main Sequence Evolutionary Models Across the Stellar/Substellar Boundary Based on Spectra of the Young Quadruple GG Tau
• Spectral Energy Distributions of Passive T Tauri Disks: Inclination

Cited by in corpus (15)

• 2021 Census of Interstellar, Circumstellar, Extragalactic, Protoplanetary Disk, and Exoplanetary Molecules
• 2018 Census of Interstellar, Circumstellar, Extragalactic, Protoplanetary Disk, and Exoplanetary Molecules
• H2 and CO emission from disks around TTauri and HerbigAe pre-main-sequence stars and from debris disks around young stars: warm and cold circumstellar gas
• Molecular Hydrogen Emission from Protoplanetary Disks II. Effects of X-ray Irradiation and Dust Evolution
• Particle Pile-ups and Planetesimal Formation
• Molecular Hydrogen Emission from Protoplanetary Disks
• Spatially Resolved Molecular Hydrogen Emission in the Inner 200AU Environments of Classical T Tauri Stars
• Observations of T-Tauri Stars using HST-GHRS: I. Far Ultraviolet Emission Lines
• Detections of Ro-Vibrational H${}_2$ Emission from the Disks of T Tauri Stars
• Looking for Pure Rotational H_2 Emission from Protoplanetary Disks
• Detection of Molecular Hydrogen Orbiting a "Naked" T Tauri Star
• A Search for Spatially Resolved Infrared Ro-Vibrational Molecular Hydrogen Emission from the Disks of Young Stars
• Detection of Molecular Hydrogen Emission Associated with LkHalpha 264
• Millimeter-wave Searches for Cold Dust and Molecular Gas around T Tauri Stars in MBM 12
• Wide-Area Mapping of 155 Micron Continuum Emission from the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex