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Abstract While dust disks around optically visible, Class II protostars are found to be vertically thin, when and how dust settles to the midplane are unclear. As part of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array large program, Early Planet Formation in Embedded Disks, we analyze the edge-on, embedded, Class I protostar IRAS 04302+2247, also nicknamed the “Butterfly Star.” With a resolution of 0.″05 (8 au), the 1.3 mm continuum shows an asymmetry along the minor axis that is evidence of an optically thick and geometrically thick disk viewed nearly edge-on. There is no evidence of rings and gaps, which could be due to the lack of radial substructure or the highly inclined and optically thick view. With 0.″1 (16 au) resolution, we resolve the 2D snow surfaces, i.e., the boundary region between freeze-out and sublimation, for12COJ= 2–1,13COJ= 2–1, C18OJ= 2–1,H2COJ= 30,3–20,2, and SOJ= 65–54, and constrain the CO midplane snow line to ∼130 au. We find Keplerian rotation around a protostar of 1.6 ± 0.4M⊙using C18O. Through forward ray-tracing using RADMC-3D, we find that the dust scale height is ∼6 au at a radius of 100 au from the central star and is comparable to the gas pressure scale height. The results suggest that the dust of this Class I source has yet to vertically settle significantly.
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This content will become publicly available on August 14, 2026
Detailed Radial Scale Height Profile of Dust Grains as Probed by Dust Self-scattering in HL Tau
Abstract The vertical settling of dust grains in a circumstellar disk, characterized by their scale height, is a pivotal process in the formation of planets. This study offers in-depth analysis and modeling of the radial scale height profile of dust grains in the HL Tau system, leveraging high-resolution polarization observations. We resolve the inner disk’s polarization, revealing a significant nearside–farside asymmetry, with the nearside being markedly brighter than the farside in polarized intensity. This asymmetry is attributed to a geometrically thick inner dust disk, suggesting a large aspect ratio ofH/R≥ 0.15, whereHis the dust scale height andRis the radius. The first ring at 20 au exhibits an azimuthal contrast, with polarization enhanced along the minor axis, indicating a moderately thick dust ring withH/R ≈ 0.1. The absence of the nearside–farside asymmetry at larger scales implies a thin dust layer, withH/R < 0.05. Taken together, these findings depict a disk with a turbulent inner region and a settled outer disk, requiring a variable turbulence model withαincreasing from 10−5at 100 au to 10−2.5at 20 au. This research sheds light on dust settling and turbulence levels within protoplanetary disks, providing valuable insights into the mechanisms of planet formation.
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- PAR ID:
- 10643857
- Publisher / Repository:
- The Astrophysical Journal Letters
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- The Astrophysical Journal Letters
- Volume:
- 989
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 2041-8205
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- L43
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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