Paper: astro-ph/0511244
Date: Tue, 8 Nov 2005 21:50:20 GMT (393kb)

Title: First optical images of circumstellar dust surrounding the debris disk
candidate HD 32297

Authors: P. Kalas

Comments: 5 pages; Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters
\\
Near-infrared imaging with the Hubble Space Telescope recently revealed a
circumstellar dust disk around the A star HD 32297. Dust scattered light is
detected as far as 400 AU radius and the linear morphology is consistent with a
disk ~10 degrees away from an edge-on orientation. Here we present the first
optical images that show the dust scattered light morphology from 560 to 1680
AU radius. The position angle of the putative disk midplane diverges by 31
degrees and the color of dust scattering is most likely blue. We associate HD
32297 with a wall of interstellar gas and the enigmatic region south of the
Taurus molecular cloud. We propose that the extreme asymmetries and blue disk
color originate from a collision with a clump of interstellar material as HD
32297 moves southward, and discuss evidence consistent with an age of 30 Myr or
younger.

\\ ( http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0511244 , 393kb)