Letter to the Editor

GAS in Protoplanetary Systems (GASPS)^*

I. First results

¹ Institute for Astronomy (IfA), University of Hawaii, 2680 Woodlawn Dr., Honolulu, HI 96822, USA e-mail: gmathews@ifa.hawaii.edu
² ALMA, Avda. Apoquindo 3846, Piso 19, Edificio Alsacia, Las Condes, Santiago, Chile
³ European Southern Observatory, Santiago, Chile
⁴ SOFIA-USRA, NASA Ames Research Center, MS N211-3, Moffett Field, CA 94035, USA
⁵ Dep. de Física Teórica, Fac. de Ciencias, UAM Campus Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid, Spain
⁶ Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218-2463, USA
⁷ Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics Lab, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 667, Greenbelt, MD, 20771, USA
⁸ Instituut voor Sterrenkunde, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200D, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
⁹ Université Joseph-Fourier Grenoble 1/CNRS, Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Grenoble (LAOG) UMR 5571, BP 53, 38041 Grenoble Cedex 09, France
¹⁰ Astronomy Department, University of California, Berkeley CA 94720-3411, USA
¹¹ Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, P.O. Box 800, 9700 AV Groningen, The Netherlands
¹² LAEX, Depto. Astrofísica, Centro de Astrobiología (INTA-CSIC), PO Box 78, 28691 Villanueva de la Cañada, Spain
¹³ School of Physics, University of Exeter, Stocker Road, Exeter EX4 4QL, UK
¹⁴ UK Astronomy Technology Centre, Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK
¹⁵ SUPA, Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory Edinburgh, UK Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh, EH9 3HJ, UK
¹⁶ School of Physics & Astronomy, University of St. Andrews, North Haugh, St. Andrews KY16 9SS, UK
¹⁷ Unidad de Archivo de Datos, Depto. Astrofisica, Centro de Astrobiologia (INTA-CSIC), PO Box 78, 28691 Villanueva de la Canada, Spain
¹⁸ Spanish Virtual Observatory, Spain
¹⁹ Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden St., Cambridge, MA, USA
²⁰ NASA Herschel Science Center, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
²¹ Calar Alto Observatory, Centro Astronómico Hispano-Alemán C/Jesús Durbán Remón, 2-2, 04004 Almería, Spain
²² Clemson University, USA
²³ NASA Exoplanet Science Institute/Caltech 770 South Wilson Avenue, Mail Code: 100-22, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
²⁴ Astrophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
²⁵ Max Planck Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
²⁶ Johns Hopkins University Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, 3701 San Martin drive Baltimore, MD 21210, USA
²⁷ Eureka Scientific, USA
²⁸ ESA-ESAC Gaia SOC, PO Box 78. 28691 Villanueva de la Cañada, Madrid, Spain
²⁹ Astrophysikalisches Institut und Universitätssternwarte, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität, Schillergäßchen 2-3, 07745 Jena, Germany
³⁰ Department of Radio and Space Science, Chalmers University of Technology, Onsala Space Observatory, 439 92 Onsala, Sweden
³¹ Spitzer Science Center, California Institute of Technology, 1200 E California Blvd, 91125 Pasadena, USA
³² Department of Astronomy, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan
³³ CEA/IRFU/SAp, AIM UMR 7158, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
³⁴ European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse, 2, 85748 Garching bei München, Germany
³⁵ The Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Didcot, OX11 ONL, UK
³⁶ Department of Physics & Astronomy, The Open University, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK

Received: 31 March 2010
Accepted: 9 May 2010

Abstract

Context. Circumstellar discs are ubiquitous around young stars, but rapidly dissipate their gas and dust on timescales of a few Myr. The Herschel Space Observatory allows for the study of the warm disc atmosphere, using far-infrared spectroscopy to measure gas content and excitation conditions, and far-IR photometry to constrain the dust distribution.

Aims. We aim to detect and characterize the gas content of circumstellar discs in four targets as part of the Herschel science demonstration phase.

Methods. We carried out sensitive medium resolution spectroscopy and high sensitivity photometry at λ ~ 60–190 μm using the Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer instrument on the Herschel Space Observatory.

Results. We detect [OI] 63 μm emission from the young stars HD 169142, TW Hydrae, and RECX 15, but not HD 181327. No other lines, including [CII] 158 and [OI] 145, are significantly detected. All four stars are detected in photometry at 70 and 160 μm. Extensive models are presented in associated papers.