Discovery of a Debris Disk Around TWA 20
Skyler Palatnick, Maxwell A. Millar-Blanchaer, Jingwen Zhang, Kellen Lawson, Briley L. Lewis, Katie A. Crotts, Aarynn L. Carter, Beth Biller, Julien H. Girard, Sebastian Marino, Raphael Bendahan-West, Giovanni M. Strampelli, Andrew D. James, Klaus Subbotina Stephenson

TL;DR
This paper reports the discovery and detailed imaging of a debris disk around the low-mass star TWA 20 using JWST, demonstrating the telescope's capability to detect faint disks around dim stars.
Contribution
First high-resolution scattered light imaging of a debris disk around an M dwarf star using JWST, with detailed modeling of disk morphology and orientation.
Findings
Disk radius of approximately 65 AU
Inclination of about 70 degrees
Detection of a nebulous, non-axisymmetric structure
Abstract
We report the discovery of a debris disk surrounding the M3 star, TWA 20, revealed by JWST coronagraphic observations using the Near-infrared Camera (NIRCam). With reference-star differential imaging (RDI), we resolve the disk in scattered light in the F200W filter at a high signal-to-noise ratio and in the F444W filter at a low signal-to-noise ratio. The disk morphology and orientation are characterized via a forward modeling approach, where we determine a radius of 64.7-6.5+6.2 AU and an inclination of 70.1-3.3+2.5 deg. Utilizing our forward model, we improve the fidelity of the debris disk image using model-constrained RDI (MCRDI). The newly discovered disk is one of only 6 disks detected in scattered light that orbit M dwarf stars; it is the third largest of the 6 resolved M dwarf disks and orbits the third faintest host star. The detection of this disk exemplifies the sensitivity…
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Taxonomy
TopicsStellar, planetary, and galactic studies · Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies · Astronomy and Astrophysical Research
