An international team succeeded in capturing a near-infrared
image associated with the RY Tauri disk by Subaru Telescope.
An international team of astronomers that are members of the
Strategic Exploration of Exoplanets and Disks with Subaru Telescope (SEEDS)
Project has used Subaru Telescope’s High Contrast Instrument for the Subaru
Next Generation Adaptive Optics (HiCIAO) to observe a disk around the young
star RY Tau (Tauri). The team’s analysis of the disk shows that a “fluffy”
layer above it is responsible for the scattered light observed in the infrared
image. Detailed comparisons with computer simulations of scattered light from
the disk reveal that this layer appears to be a remnant of material from an
earlier phase of stellar and disk development, when dust and gas were falling
onto the disk.