Discovery of Volatile Gas in the Giant Impact Disk around the 150-Myr old HD 23514

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Su, Kate Y. L., Moór, Attila, Xie, Chengyan, Pascucci, Ilaria, Rieke, George H., Kóspál, Ágnes, Wyatt, Mark C., Ábrahám, Péter, Matrà, Luca, Roumeliotis, Zoe, Wilner, D. J.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Su, Kate Y. L.
Moór, Attila
Xie, Chengyan
Pascucci, Ilaria
Rieke, George H.
Kóspál, Ágnes
Wyatt, Mark C.
Ábrahám, Péter
Matrà, Luca
Roumeliotis, Zoe
Wilner, D. J.
author_facet Su, Kate Y. L.
Moór, Attila
Xie, Chengyan
Pascucci, Ilaria
Rieke, George H.
Kóspál, Ágnes
Wyatt, Mark C.
Ábrahám, Péter
Matrà, Luca
Roumeliotis, Zoe
Wilner, D. J.
contents We report the discovery of CO$_2$ gas emission around HD 23514, an F5V star in the $\sim$150 Myr-old Pleiades cluster, hosting one of the rare giant-impact disks with unique mineralogy dominated by silica dust. We show that the dust feature remains stable over several decades, and that the sub-$μ$m grains, which give rise to the $\sim$9 $μ$m feature, are co-spatial with the hot CO$_2$ molecules within the sub-au vicinity of the star. Examining the Spitzer spectrum taken 15 years earlier, we show that the CO$_2$ emission was also present at 4.3 $σ$ significance. The existence of tiny silica grains and volatile gas requires special conditions to prevent the rapid loss caused by stellar radiation pressure and photodissociation. We explore several pathways explaining the observed properties and suggest that a past giant impact and/or stripping atmospheric event, involving large bodies with volatile content similar to the carbonaceous chondritic material, can simultaneously explain both the silica and volatile emission. Our discovery provides an important context for the amount of volatiles that a newly formed planet or the largest planetesimals could retain during the giant impact phase in the early solar system evolution.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_20919
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Discovery of Volatile Gas in the Giant Impact Disk around the 150-Myr old HD 23514
Su, Kate Y. L.
Moór, Attila
Xie, Chengyan
Pascucci, Ilaria
Rieke, George H.
Kóspál, Ágnes
Wyatt, Mark C.
Ábrahám, Péter
Matrà, Luca
Roumeliotis, Zoe
Wilner, D. J.
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
We report the discovery of CO$_2$ gas emission around HD 23514, an F5V star in the $\sim$150 Myr-old Pleiades cluster, hosting one of the rare giant-impact disks with unique mineralogy dominated by silica dust. We show that the dust feature remains stable over several decades, and that the sub-$μ$m grains, which give rise to the $\sim$9 $μ$m feature, are co-spatial with the hot CO$_2$ molecules within the sub-au vicinity of the star. Examining the Spitzer spectrum taken 15 years earlier, we show that the CO$_2$ emission was also present at 4.3 $σ$ significance. The existence of tiny silica grains and volatile gas requires special conditions to prevent the rapid loss caused by stellar radiation pressure and photodissociation. We explore several pathways explaining the observed properties and suggest that a past giant impact and/or stripping atmospheric event, involving large bodies with volatile content similar to the carbonaceous chondritic material, can simultaneously explain both the silica and volatile emission. Our discovery provides an important context for the amount of volatiles that a newly formed planet or the largest planetesimals could retain during the giant impact phase in the early solar system evolution.
title Discovery of Volatile Gas in the Giant Impact Disk around the 150-Myr old HD 23514
topic Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.20919