Mapping of shadows cast on a protoplanetary disk by a close binary system

D'Orazi, V.
Gratton, R.
Desidera, S.
Avenhaus, H.
Mesa, D.
Stolker, T.
Giro, E.
Benatti, S.
Jang-Condell, H.
Rigliaco, E.
Sissa, E.
Scatolin, T.
Benisty, M.
Bhowmik, T.
Boccaletti, A.
Bonnefoy, M.
Brandner, W.
Buenzli, E.
Chauvin, G.
Daemgen, S.
Damasso, M.
Feldt, M.
Galicher, R.
Girard, J.
Janson, M.
Hagelberg, J.
Mouillet, D.
Kral, Q.
Lannier, J.
Lagrange, A.
Langlois, M.
Maire, A.
Menard, F.
Moeller-Nilsson, O.
Perrot, C.
Peretti, S.
Rabou, P.
Ramos, J.
Rodet, L.
Roelfsema, R.
Roux, A.
Salter, G.
Schlieder, J.
Schmidt, T.
Szulagyi, J.
Thalmann, C.
Thebault, P.
van der Plas, G.
Vigan, A.
Zurlo, A.

Publication date

January 2019

Abstract

For a comprehensive understanding of planetary formation and evolution, we need to investigate the environment in which planets form: circumstellar disks. Here we present high-contrast imaging observations of V4046 Sagittarii, a 20-Myr-old close binary known to host a circumbinary disk. We have discovered the presence of rotating shadows in the disk, caused by mutual occultations of the central binary. Shadow-like features are often observed in disks1,2, but those found thus far have not been due to eclipsing phenomena. We have used the phase difference due to light travel time to measure the flaring of the disk and the geometrical distance of the system. We calculate a distance that is in very good agreement with the value obtained from th...