Planets Beyond the Solar System and the Next Generation of Space Missions

The Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) Investigation Definition Team (IDT) has used the instrument on HST to observe circumstellar material around eleven young stellar objects, three main sequence stars with debris disks, and three shell stars. The high spatial resolution and stable PSF of HST are revealing new details of the circumstellar nebulae of these objects. DG Tau shows a number of arcs of reflection nebulosity and significant jet structure. DG Tau B has a thick absorbing disk with a bipolar jet. HH 30 has a disk and jet (models of the disk nebulosity are presented). HL Tau is completely obscured by a compact nebula. FS Tau is surrounded by intricate nebulosity with a possible bipolar outflow cavity. FS Tau B shows an absorption disk and jets similar to HH 30. XZ Tau has a bubble of emission nebulosity surrounding a jet. GM Aurigae has a thin disk. T Tauri is adjacent to a arc of reflection nebulosity which may indicate a cleared cavity. The disk of Pictoris has an exponential vertical profile and has a midplane warp which may indicate planetary perturbations. No nebulosity indicative of circumstellar material was detected for the shell stars, two naked T Tauri stars, or for Vega and Fomalhaut. These results show that young T Tauri stars are perhaps the most consistently interesting class of objects for circumstellar disk studies at optical wavelengths.

Last update: 10/22/96 11:00:29