Gemini Planet Imager Observations of a Resolved Low-inclination Debris Disk around HD 156623
Abstract The 16 Myr old A0V star HD 156623 in the Scorpius–Centaurus association hosts a high-fractional-luminosity debris disk, recently resolved in scattered light for the first time by the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) in polarized intensity only. We present a new analysis of the GPI H -band polarimetric detection of the HD 156623 debris disk, with particular interest in its unique morphology. This debris disk lacks a visible inner clearing, unlike the majority of low-inclination disks in the GPI sample and in Sco-Cen, and it is known to contain CO gas, positioning it as a candidate “hybrid” or “shielded” disk. We use radiative transfer models to constrain the geometric parameters of the disk based on scattered light data and thermal models to constrain the unresolved inner radius based on the system’s spectral energy distribution (SED). We also compute a measurement of the polarized scattering phase function, adding to the existing sample of empirical phase function measurements. We find that HD 156623's debris disk inner radius is constrained to less than 26.6 au from scattered light imagery and less than 13.4 au from SED modeling at a 99.7% confidence interval and suggest that gas drag may play a role in retaining sub-blowout-size dust grains so close to the star.
Authors
- Brenda C. Matthews (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3017-9577)
- Maxwell A. Millar‐Blanchaer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6205-9233)
- Gaspard Duchêne (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5092-6464)
- B. Lewis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8984-4319)
- Katie A. Crotts (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4909-256X)
- Justin Hom (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9994-2142)
- David J. Wilner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1526-7587)
- Katherine B. Follette (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7821-0695)
- Thomas M. Esposito (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0792-3719)
- Paul Kalas (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6221-5360)
- Bruce Macintosh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1212-7538)
- Pauline Arriaga (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6364-2834)
- Michael P. Fitzgerald (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0176-8973)
- Ronald López (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7646-4184)
- Johan Mazoyer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9133-3091)
Institutions
- University of California, Santa Barbara (US)
- University of California, Los Angeles (US)
- Amherst College (US)
- University of California, Santa Cruz (US)
- University of Victoria (CA)
- Observatoire de Paris (FR)
- Institut de Planétologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble (FR)
- Laboratoire d’études spatiales et d’instrumentation en astrophysique (FR)
- Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- The Astronomical Journal
- Published
- 2024-09-04
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ad67e1
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.33
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- California Institute of Technology
- National Radio Astronomy Observatory
- European Space Agency
- Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute
- National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
- Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovações e Comunicações
- Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory
- University of California, Los Angeles
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
- National Institutes of Natural Sciences
- Agencia Estatal de Investigación