Massive Protoplanetary Disks in Orion Beyond the Trapezium Cluster

TL;DR

This study reports the discovery of extremely massive protoplanetary disks in Orion outside the Trapezium cluster, indicating that high-mass disks are more common than previously thought and are affected by nearby massive stars.

Contribution

It provides the first evidence that massive disks exist beyond the Trapezium cluster and suggests photoevaporation influences disk mass distribution in Orion.

Findings

Disks have dust masses of 0.045 and 0.066 Msun, larger than previously observed.

Massive disks are present outside the Trapezium, extending the known mass distribution.

The 253-1536 binary system has disks capable of forming Solar systems.

Abstract

We present Submillimeter Array observations of the 880 micron continuum emission from three circumstellar disks around young stars in Orion that lie several arcminutes (> 1-pc) north of the Trapezium cluster. Two of the three disks are in the binary system 253-1536. Silhouette disks 216-0939 and 253-1536a are found to be more massive than any previously observed Orion disks, with dust masses derived from their submillimeter emission of 0.045 Msun and 0.066 Msun, respectively. The existence of these massive disks reveals the disk mass distribution in Orion does extend to high masses, and that the truncation observed in the central Trapezium cluster is a result of photoevaporation due to the proximity of O-stars. 253-1536b has a disk mass of 0.018 Msun, making the 253-1536 system the first optical binary in which each protoplanetary disk is massive enough to potentially form Solar systems.