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Published Online September 28, 2006
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1131436

Reports

Submitted on June 19, 2006
Accepted on September 12, 2006

Anatomy of a Flaring Proto-Planetary Disk Around a Young Intermediate-Mass Star

Pierre-Olivier Lagage 1*, Coralie Doucet 1, Eric Pantin 1, Emilie Habart 2, Gaspard Duchêne 3, François Ménard 3, Christophe Pinte 3, Sébastien Charnoz 1, Jan-Willem Pel 4

1 AIM - Unité Mixte de Recherche CEA - CNRS - Université Paris 7 - UMR n° 7158, DSM/DAPNIA/Service d'Astrophysique, CEA Saclay, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France.
2 Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale (IAS), F-91405, Orsay Cedex, France.
3 Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Grenoble, CNRS/UJF UMR 5571, BP 53, F-38041 Grenoble Cedex 9, France.
4 Netherlands Foundation for Research in Astronomy (ASTRON), Dwingeloo, Netherlands; The University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Pierre-Olivier Lagage , E-mail: Pierre-Olivier.Lagage{at}cea.fr

While planets are being discovered around stars more massive than the Sun, information about the proto-planetary disks where such planets have built up is sparse. We have imaged mid-infrared emission from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons at the surface of the disk surrounding the young intermediate-mass star HD97048 and characterized the disk. The disk is in an early stage of evolution, as indicated by its large content of dust and its hydrostatic flared geometry, indicative of the presence of a large amount of gas well mixed with dust and gravitationally stable. The disk is a precursor of debris disks found around more evolved A stars such as {beta}-Pictoris and provides the rare opportunity to witness the conditions prevailing prior to (or during) planet formation.




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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)