A silicate disk in the heart of the Ant

Chesneau, O., Lykou, F., Balick, B., Lagadec, E., Matsuura, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5529-5593, Smith, N., Spang, A., Wolf, S. and Zijlstra, A. A. 2007. A silicate disk in the heart of the Ant. Astronomy & Astrophysics 473 (3) , L29 - L32. 10.1051/0004-6361:20078268

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Abstract

Aims:We aim at getting high spatial resolution information on the dusty core of bipolar planetary nebulae to directly constrain the shaping process. Methods: We present observations of the dusty core of the extreme bipolar planetary nebula Menzel 3 (Mz 3, Hen 2-154, the Ant) taken with the mid-infrared interferometer MIDI/VLTI and the adaptive optics NACO/VLT. Results: The core of Mz 3 is clearly resolved with MIDI in the interferometric mode, whereas it is unresolved from the Ks to the N bands with single dish 8.2 m observations on a scale ranging from 60 to 250 mas. A striking dependence of the dust core size with the PA angle of the baselines is observed, that is highly suggestive of an edge-on disk whose major axis is perpendicular to the axis of the bipolar lobes. The MIDI spectrum and the visibilities of Mz 3 exhibit a clear signature of amorphous silicate, in contrast to the signatures of crystalline silicates detected in binary post-AGB systems, suggesting that the disk might be relatively young. We used radiative-transfer Monte Carlo simulations of a passive disk to constrain its geometrical and physical parameters. Its inclination (74° ± 3°) and position angle (5° ± 5°) are in accordance with the values derived from the study of the lobes. The inner radius is 9± 1 AU and the disk is relatively flat. The dust mass stored in the disk, estimated as 1 × 10-5~M⊙, represents only a small fraction of the dust mass found in the lobes and might be a kind of relic of an essentially polar ejection process....

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Physics and Astronomy
Publisher:	EDP Sciences
ISSN:	0004-6361
Date of Acceptance:	23 August 2007
Last Modified:	08 May 2024 08:30
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/168109

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