Inner Rim of a Molecular Disk Spatially Resolved in Infrared CO Emission Lines

Abstract

We present high-resolution infrared spectroscopy of the Herbig Aestar HD 141569A in the CO v = 2 - 1 transition. With the angularresolution attained by the adaptive optics system, the gas disk aroundHD 141569A is spatially resolved down to its inner-rim truncation.The size of the inner clearing is 11+- 2 AU in radius, close to thegravitational radius of the star. The rough coincidence with thegravitational radius indicates that the viscous accretion workingtogether with photoevaporation by stellar radiation has cleared theinner part of the disk.