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Published August 9, 2013 | public
Journal Article

Imaging of the CO Snow Line in a Solar Nebula Analog

Abstract

Planets form in the disks around young stars. Their formation efficiency and composition are intimately linked to the protoplanetary disk locations of "snow lines" of abundant volatiles. We present chemical imaging of the CO snow line in the disk around TW Hya, an analog of the solar nebula, using high spatial and spectral resolution Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of N_2H^+, a reactive ion present in large abundance only where CO is frozen out. The N_2H^+ emission is distributed in a large ring, with an inner radius that matches CO snow line model predictions. The extracted CO snow line radius of ∼ 30 AU helps to assess models of the formation dynamics of the solar system, when combined with measurements of the bulk composition of planets and comets.

Additional Information

© 2013 American Association for the Advancement of Science. Received for publication 23 April 2013. Accepted for publication 2 July 2013. Published Online July 18 2013. We are grateful to S. Schnee for data calibration and reduction assistance. C.Q. thanks the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) Radio Telescope Data Center (RTDC) staff for their generous computational support. C.Q., K.I.O., and D.J.W. acknowledge grant NNX11AK63 from NASA Origins of Solar Systems. P.D. acknowledges a grant from Programa de Apoyo a Proyectos de Investigación e Innovación Tecnológica–UNAM. E.B. acknowledges support from NSF grant 1008800. This Report makes use of the following ALMA data: ADS JAO. ALMA#2011.0.00340.S. ALMA is a partnership of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) (representing its member states), NSF (USA), and the National Institute of Natural Sciences (Japan), together with the National Research Council (Canada) and the National Science Council and Academia Sinica's Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA) (Taiwan), in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. The Joint ALMA Observatory is operated by ESO, Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI)/National Radio Astronomy Observatory, and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. We also make use of the Submillimeter Array (SMA) data: project #2004-214 (principal investigator, C.Q.). The SMA is a joint project between SAO and ASIAA and is funded by the Smithsonian Institution and the Academia Sinica.

Additional details

Created:
August 22, 2023
Modified:
October 24, 2023