Near-infrared spectroscopy of simple organic molecules in the GV Tau N protoplanetary disk

Gibb, Erika

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/59138 Copy

Description

Title

Near-infrared spectroscopy of simple organic molecules in the GV Tau N protoplanetary disk

Author(s)

Gibb, Erika

Issue Date

2014-06-19

Keyword(s)

Mini-symposium: Astronomical Molecular Spectroscopy in the Age of ALMA

Abstract

T Tauri stars are low mass young stars that may serve as analogs to the early solar system. Observations of organic molecules in the protoplanetary disks surrounding T Tauri stars are important for characterizing the chemical and physical processes that lead to planet formation. We used NIRSPEC on Keck 2 to perform a high resolution ($\lambda/\Delta\lambda$ $\sim$ 25,000) L-band survey of T Tauri star GV Tau N, a nearly edge-on young star in the L1524 molecular cloud. The nearly edge-on orientation is rare but necessary to sample the disk in absorption, rather than the more common emission line measurements. GV Tau N is one of only two sources for which HCN and C$_2$H$_2$ have been reported in absorption (Gibb et al. 2007; Doppmann et al. 2008). More recently, we reported the first detection of methane, CH$_4$ (Gibb \& Horne 2013). The rotational temperatures are relatively high, implying that HCN, C$_2$H$_2$, CH$_4$, and water originate in the warm molecular layer of the inner protoplanetary disk. Differences in rotational temperature for different molecules suggest that the absorbing column for each molecule samples a different radial distribution.\\ \\ Doppmann, G. W., Najita, K. R., \& Carr, J. S. 2008, ApJ, 685, 298 \\ Gibb, E. L., Van Brunt, K. A., Brittain, S. D., \& Rettig, T. W. 2007, ApJ, 660, 1572 \\ Gibb, E. L., Horne, D. 2013, ApJ, 776, L28 \\ \\ E.L.G. was supported by NSF Astronomy grant AST-0908230 and NASA Exobiology grant NNX07AK38G.

Publisher

International Symposium on Molecular Spectroscopy

Type of Resource

text

Language

en

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/59138

DOI

https://doi.org/10.15278/isms.2014.RF03

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2014 by the authors. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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