ALMA OBSERVATIONS of the LARGEST PROTO-PLANETARY DISK in the ORION NEBULA, 114-426: A CO SILHOUETTE

Abstract

We present ALMA observations of the largest protoplanetary disk in the Orion Nebula, 114-426. Detectable 345 GHz (856 μm) dust continuum is produced only in the 350 AU central region of the ∼1000 AU diameter silhouette seen against the bright background in Hubble Space Telescope images. Assuming optically thin dust emission at 345 GHz, a gas-to-dust ratio of 100, and a grain temperature of 20 K, the disk gas-mass is estimated to be Jupiter masses. If most solids and ices have been incorporated into large grains, however, this value is a lower limit. The disk is not detected in dense-gas tracers such as HCO+ J = 4-3, HCN J = 4-3, or CS = 7-6. These results may indicate that the 114-426 disk is evolved and depleted in some light organic compounds found in molecular clouds. The CO J = 3-2 line is seen in absorption against the bright 50-80 K background of the Orion A molecular cloud over the full spatial extent and a little beyond the dust continuum emission. The CO absorption reaches a depth of 27 K below the background CO emission at VLSR 6.7 km s ∼ 0.″52 (210 AU) northeast and 12 K below the background CO emission at VLSR ≈ 9.7 km s ∼ 0.″34 (140 AU) southwest of the suspected location of the central star, implying that the embedded star has a mass less than 1 M.·