WFPC2 Images of a Face-on Disk Surrounding TW Hydrae

Abstract

Hubble Space Telescope observations of the isolated T Tauri star TW Hydrae reveal the presence of a compact circumstellar nebula. After subtraction of a reference point-spread function (PSF), a smooth, symmetrical, circular halo can be seen in both R- and I-band WFPC2 images. Its intensity declines with radius until reaching an outer sensitivity limit at 3.5" (~200 AU). Numerical experiments show that PSF subtraction artifacts cannot account for the halo's brightness distribution. Instead, the most likely explanation is that the halo is a face-on circumstellar disk. The radial brightness profile of the halo is complex and can be described with multiple, contiguous zones with individual power-law intensity relations. The halo appears slightly blue relative to the star, especially in the outer zones. We compare the TW Hya halo to single-scattering models of face-on disks with multiple radial zones. While optically thin disk models with vertical optical depth τ_v~10^-2 can reproduce the relative brightness of the nebula and star, we find that such models have large midplane optical depths and are therefore not self-consistent. We present an optically thick disk model that matches the radial brightness profile self-consistently and has a dust mass close to that implied by submillimeter continuum measurements. The zonal structure found in the disk could arise from radial variations in the dust properties that determine the local equilibrium temperature or perhaps via dynamical effects of unseen companions.