Volatile composition of the HD 169142 disk and its embedded planet

TL;DR

This study investigates the volatile chemical composition of the HD 169142 protoplanetary disk and its embedded planet, revealing elemental abundances and chemical processes relevant for planet formation.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed chemical analysis of the HD 169142 disk at small scales, linking disk composition to the planet's atmosphere and highlighting sulfur molecules as key probes.

Findings

Carbon and oxygen are only moderately depleted from the gas phase.

The inner 60 au of the disk is enriched in volatile oxygen.

Sulfur is significantly depleted, and SiS emission suggests shock or outflow activity.

Abstract

The composition of a planet's atmosphere is intricately linked to the chemical makeup of the protoplanetary disk in which it formed. Determining the elemental abundances from key volatiles within disks is therefore essential for establishing connections between the composition of disks and planets. The disk around the Herbig Ae star HD 169142 is a compelling target for such a study due to its molecule-rich nature and the presence of a newly-forming planet between two prominent dust rings. In this work, we probe the chemistry of the HD 169142 disk at small spatial scales, drawing links between the composition of the disk and the planet-accreted gas. Using thermochemical models and archival data, we constrain the elemental abundances of volatile carbon, oxygen, and sulfur. Carbon and oxygen are only moderately depleted from the gas phase relative to their interstellar abundances, with the inner 60 au appearing enriched in volatile oxygen. The C/O ratio is approximately solar within the inner disk and rises above this in the outer disk, as expected across the H2O snowline. The gas-phase sulfur abundance is depleted by a factor of 1000, consistent with a number of other protoplanetary disks. Interestingly, the observed SiS emission near the HD 169142 b protoplanet vastly exceeds chemical model predictions, supporting previous hypotheses suggesting its origin in shocked gas or a localised outflow. We contextualise our findings in terms of the potential atmospheric composition of the embedded planet, and highlight the utility of sulfur-bearing molecules as probes of protoplanetary disk chemistry.