Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-1-2004

Publication Title

The Astrophysical Journal

Volume

616

Issue

2

Publisher

The American Astronomical Society

Abstract

We report the detection of rovibrationally excited CO emission from the inner disk of the classical T Tauri star (cTTS) TW Hya. We observe ~6 × 1021 g of CO gas with a rotational temperature of 430 ± 40 K. The linearity of the excitation plot suggests that the CO is optically thin. Atypical for cTTSs, hot CO was not detected, implying that TW Hya has cleared its inner disk region out to a radial distance of ~0.5 AU. We discuss implications for the structure of the disk as it relates to replenishment and planet formation.

Comments

This manuscript has been published in the The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Please find the published version here (note that a subscription is necessary to access this version):

http://iopscience.iop.org/1538-4357/616/2/L163

The American Astronomical Society holds the copyright in this article.

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