Probing the temporal and spatial variations of dust emission in the protoplanetary disk of DG Tau with VLTI/MIDI - Preliminary results

TL;DR

This study uses multi-epoch VLTI/MIDI observations of DG Tau to investigate temporal and spatial variations in dust emission, revealing significant brightening and disk expansion over two months, linked to dust lifting above the disk.

Contribution

First multi-epoch interferometric study revealing temporal and spatial dust emission variations in DG Tau's protoplanetary disk.

Findings

Significant brightening of DG Tau over two months.

Expansion of the mid-infrared emitting region.

Results support dust lifting above the disk as a cause for silicate feature variation.

Abstract

The signatures of dust processing and grain growth - related to the formation of rocky planets - are easily seen in mid-infrared spectral features. One important diagnostic tool in this context is the silicate feature in the spectra of young stellar objects (YSO). The low-mass YSO, DG Tau shows unique temporal variations in its silicate feature. We conducted multi-epoch observations of DG Tau with the MID-Infrared Interferometric instrument of the Very Large Telescope Interferometer to obtain the spectra of the inner and outer disk regions in order to investigate where the previously reported variations of the silicate feature originate from. Here we present the preliminary results of the first two epochs of observations. We found that on a time-scale of two months, the source showed significant brightening. At the same time the mid-infrared emitting region expanded. While the identification of the silicate feature is difficult, our results qualitatively agree with the scenario explaining the varying silicate feature with dust lifted up above the disk.