The Gas Component of the KH 15D Transition Disk
First Author:
Samantha Lawler
Email: slawler AT wesleyan.edu
Wesleyan University
Astronomy Department, Wesleyan University
Middletown, CT 06459
Coauthors:
Hamilton, Catrina, Dickinson College
Herbst, William, Wesleyan University
Johns-Krull, Christopher, Rice University
Mundt, Reinhard, Max-Planck-Institut fur Astronomie
Winn, Joshua, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
High resolution spectra of KH 15D have been obtained at a variety of elevations of star A with respect to the occulting edge of its circumbinary disk. The optical light variations provide information on the opacity distribution, which comes from the solid component. Here we employ measurements of the NaI D lines to measure the vertical distribution of gas density. Comparing the gas and dust distributions allows us to model the degree of settling of the dust in this transition disk.
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