JWST MIRI spectrum of T Cha

Understanding when and how circumstellar disks disperse is crucial to constrain planet formation and migration. Thermal winds powered by high-energy stellar photons have long been theorized to drive disk dispersal. However, evidence for these winds is currently based only on small (~3-6km/s) blueshifts in [NeII] 12.81{mu}m lines, which does not exclude MHD winds. We report JWST MIRI MRS spectro-imaging of TCha, a disk with a large dust gap (~30au in radius) and blueshifted [NeII] emission. We detect four forbidden noble gas lines, [ArII], [ArIII], [NeII], and [NeIII], of which [ArIII] is the first detection in any protoplanetary disk. We use line flux ratios to constrain the energy of the ionizing photons and find that argon is ionized by extreme ultraviolet, whereas neon is most likely ionized by X-rays. After performing continuum and point-spread function subtraction on the integral field unit cube, we discover a spatial extension in the [NeII] emission off the disk continuum emission. This is the first spatially resolved [NeII] disk wind emission. The mostly ionic spectrum of TCha, in combination with the extended [NeII] emission, points to an evolved stage for any inner MHD wind and is consistent with the existence of an outer thermal wind ionized and driven by high-energy stellar photons. This work acts as a pathfinder for future observations aiming at investigating disk dispersal using JWST.

Identifier
Source https://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/lp/custom/CDS.VizieR/J/AJ/167/127
Related Identifier https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/AJ/167/127
Related Identifier http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/AJ/167/127
Metadata Access http://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/pmh/pubreg.xml?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_b2find&identifier=ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/AJ/167/127
Provenance
Creator Bajaj N.S.; Pascucci I.; Gorti U.; Alexander R.; Sellek A.; Morrison J.,Gaspar A.; Clarke C.; Xie C.; Ballabio G.; Deng D.
Publisher CDS
Publication Year 2024
Rights https://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.html
OpenAccess true
Contact CDS support team <cds-question(at)unistra.fr>
Representation
Resource Type Dataset; AstroObjects
Discipline Astrophysics and Astronomy; Interdisciplinary Astronomy; Natural Sciences; Observational Astronomy; Physics; Stellar Astronomy