Protostars and Planets VI, Heidelberg, July 15-20, 2013

Poster 1B092

Observing and Characterizing Disks (and Binaries) Around the Youngest Protostars

Tobin, John (NRAO)
Looney, Leslie (Illinois)
Wilner, David (CfA)
Hartmann, Lee (Michigan)
Calvet, Nuria (Michigan)
Chiang, Hsin-Fang (Hawaii)
Chandler, Claire (NRAO)
Loinard, Laurent (UNAM)
D\'Alessio, Paola (UNAM)
Bourke, Tyler (CfA)
Kwon, Woojin (SRON)
Schnee, Scott (NRAO)

Abstract:
The formation of proto-planetary disks begins during the earliest phase of the star formation process, while the nascent protostar is still surrounded by a dense envelope of gas and dust. I will present high resolution observations of Class 0 protostars at sub/millimeter wavelengths from the SMA and CARMA. As a shining example, we detected an edge-on R ∼ 150 AU proto-planetary disk around the Class 0 protostar L1527 in Taurus. Simultaneous observations of the 13CO (J=2-1) transition are found to trace the disk rotation curve and a protostellar mass of 0.19 +/- 0.04 Msun is found. Building on these results we have conducted a small survey with CARMA at 1.3 mm toward 9 protostars in Perseus finding a few examples of possible disk-like structures and rotation. Using the VLA, we have observed a 3 protostars at a resolution of 0.06\", finding two to be 100 AU binaries. The small separation of the binaries is a likely indication that they formed via disk fragmentation. This lays the ground work for ALMA, which will be needed to make significant gains in the area of disk formation with vastly improved resolution and sensitivity. Most importantly, ALMA’s ability to detect faint molecular lines will enable masses of a large number of Class 0 protostars to be measured for the first time.

Click here to view poster PDF