Welcome to the new version of CaltechAUTHORS. Login is currently restricted to library staff. If you notice any issues, please email coda@library.caltech.edu
Published January 20, 2015 | Published + Submitted
Journal Article Open

First-light LBT Nulling Interferometric Observations: Warm Exozodiacal Dust Resolved within a Few AU of η Crv

Abstract

We report on the first nulling interferometric observations with the Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer (LBTI), resolving the N' band (9.81–12.41 μm) emission around the nearby main-sequence star η Crv (F2V, 1–2 Gyr). The measured source null depth amounts to 4.40% ± 0.35% over a field-of-view of 140 mas in radius (~2.6 AU for the distance of η Crv) and shows no significant variation over 35° of sky rotation. This relatively low null is unexpected given the total disk to star flux ratio measured by the Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph (IRS; ~23% across the N' band), suggesting that a significant fraction of the dust lies within the central nulled response of the LBTI (79 mas or 1.4 AU). Modeling of the warm disk shows that it cannot resemble a scaled version of the solar zodiacal cloud unless it is almost perpendicular to the outer disk imaged by Herschel. It is more likely that the inner and outer disks are coplanar and the warm dust is located at a distance of 0.5–1.0 AU, significantly closer than previously predicted by models of the IRS spectrum (~3 AU). The predicted disk sizes can be reconciled if the warm disk is not centrosymmetric, or if the dust particles are dominated by very small grains. Both possibilities hint that a recent collision has produced much of the dust. Finally, we discuss the implications for the presence of dust for the distance where the insolation is the same as Earth's (2.3 AU).

Additional Information

© 2015 The American Astronomical Society. Received 8 September 2014; accepted for publication 6 November 2014; published 14 January 2015. The Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer is funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as part of its Exoplanet Exploration Program. The LBT is an international collaboration among institutions in the United States, Italy, and Germany. LBT Corporation partners are the University of Arizona on behalf of the Arizona university system; Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Italy; LBT Beteiligungsgesellschaft, Germany, representing the Max-Planck Society, the Astrophysical Institute Potsdam, and Heidelberg University; The Ohio State University; and the Research Corporation, on behalf of the University of Notre Dame, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Virginia. This work was supported by the European Union through ERC grant number 279973 (G.M.K. and M.C.W.). The authors thank C. Lisse for helpful advice. The LBTI team would like to dedicate this paper to the memory of our colleague and friend, Vidhya Vaitheeswaran.

Attached Files

Published - 0004-637X_799_1_42.pdf

Submitted - 1501.04144v1.pdf

Files

1501.04144v1.pdf
Files (1.4 MB)
Name Size Download all
md5:f83951035dc1a91b57018b4ca4695ea3
648.3 kB Preview Download
md5:c4f60d1bcd0833b0bbaa6d755bd28eb0
708.5 kB Preview Download

Additional details

Created:
August 22, 2023
Modified:
October 20, 2023