51 Ophiuchus: A Possible Beta Pictoris Analog Measured with the Keck Interferometer Nuller

TL;DR

This study models the circumstellar disk of 51 Ophiuchi using interferometric and spectral data, suggesting it resembles disks around Beta Pictoris and other young star systems, indicating ongoing planet formation processes.

Contribution

It introduces a two-component optically-thin disk model that successfully explains the observations, proposing 51 Ophiuchi as a Beta Pictoris analog.

Findings

A two-component disk model fits the data well.

Inner disk extends to ~4 AU, outer disk to ~1200 AU.

Supports ongoing planet formation around 51 Ophiuchi.

Abstract

We present observations of the 51 Ophiuchi circumstellar disk made with the Keck interferometer operating in nulling mode at N-band. We model these data simultaneously with VLTI-MIDI visibility data and a Spitzer IRS spectrum using a variety of optically-thin dust cloud models and an edge-on optically-thick disk model. We find that single-component optically-thin disk models and optically-thick disk models are inadequate to reproduce the observations, but an optically-thin two-component disk model can reproduce all of the major spectral and interferometric features. Our preferred disk model consists of an inner disk of blackbody grains extending to ~4 AU and an outer disk of small silicate grains extending out to ~1200 AU. Our model is consistent with an inner "birth" disk of continually colliding parent bodies producing an extended envelope of ejected small grains. This picture resembles the disks around Vega, AU Microscopii, and Beta Pictoris, supporting the idea that 51 Ophiuchius may be a Beta Pictoris analog.