Hubble Space Telescope Scattered-light Imaging and Modeling of the Edge-on Protoplanetary Disk ESO-H 569

• Published in: The Astrophysical journal 2017-12, Vol.851 (1)
• Main Authors: Wolff, Schuyler G., Perrin, Marshall D., Stapelfeldt, Karl, Duchêne, Gaspard, Ménard, Francois, Padgett, Deborah, Pinte, Christophe, Pueyo, Laurent, Fischer, William J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: protoplanetary disks; radiative transfer
• ISSN: 0004-637X; 1538-4357
• DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/aa9981

We present new Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Advanced Camera for Surveys observations and detailed models for a recently discovered edge-on protoplanetary disk around ESO-H 569 (a low-mass T Tauri star in the Cha I star-forming region). Using radiative transfer models, we probe the distribution of the grains and overall shape of the disk (inclination, scale height, dust mass, flaring exponent, and surface/volume density exponent) by model fitting to multiwavelength (F606W and F814W) HST observations together with a literature-compiled spectral energy distribution. A new tool set was developed for finding optimal fits of MCFOST radiative transfer models using the MCMC code emcee to efficiently explore the high-dimensional parameter space. It is able to self-consistently and simultaneously fit a wide variety of observables in order to place constraints on the physical properties of a given disk, while also rigorously assessing the uncertainties in those derived properties. We confirm that ESO-H 569 is an optically thick nearly edge-on protoplanetary disk. The shape of the disk is well-described by a flared disk model with an exponentially tapered outer edge, consistent with models previously advocated on theoretical grounds and supported by millimeter interferometry. The scattered-light images and spectral energy distribution are best fit by an unusually high total disk mass (gas+dust assuming a ratio of 100:1) with a disk-to-star mass ratio of 0.16.