Direct detection of a flared disk around a young massive star HD200775 and its 10 to 1000AU scale properties

TL;DR

This study presents the first well-resolved infrared images of a flared disk around a young massive star HD200775, revealing its structure, supporting disk accretion formation, and comparing properties with lower-mass stars.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed infrared imaging of a disk around a massive star, demonstrating its structure and implications for star formation theories.

Findings

Detected diffuse elliptical emission indicating a flared disk.

The disk's surface emits mid-infrared photons, consistent with a surface layer.

The disk shows signs of photoevaporation and unique silicate emission features.

Abstract

We made mid-infrared observations of the 10Msun Herbig Be star HD200775 with the Cooled Mid-Infrared Camera and Spectrometer (COMICS) on the 8.2m Subaru Telescope. We discovered diffuse emission of an elliptical shape extended in the north-south direction inabout 1000AU radius around unresolved excess emission. The diffuse emission is perpendicular to the cavity wall formed by the past outflow activity and is parallel to the projected major axis of the central close binary orbit. The centers of the ellipse contours of the diffuse emission are shifted from the stellar position and the amount of the shift increases as the contour brightness level decreases. The diffuse emission is well explained in all of geometry, size, and configuration by an inclined flared disk where only its surface emits the mid-infrared photons. Our results give the first well-resolved infrared disk images around a massive star and strongly support that HD200775 is formed through the disk accretion. The disk survives the main accretion phase and shows a structure similar to that around lower-mass stars with 'disk atmosphere'. At the same time, the disk also shows properties characteristic to massive stars such as photoevaporation traced by the 3.4mm free-free emission and unusual silicate emission with a peak at 9.2micron, which is shorter than that of many astronomical objects. It provides a good place to compare the disk properties between massive and lower-mass stars.