The SPHERE view of the Taurus star-forming region

The full census of planet-forming disks with GTO and DESTINYS programs^★

¹ INAF, Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Largo Enrico Fermi 5, 50125 Firenze, Italy
e-mail: antonio.garufi@inaf.it
² Centre for Astronomy, Dept. of Physics, National University of Ireland Galway, University Road, Galway H91 TK33, Ireland
³ European Southern Observatory, Alonso de Córdova 3107, Casilla 19001, Vitacura, Santiago, Chile
⁴ Laboratoire Lagrange, Université Côte d'Azur, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, CNRS, Nice Cedex 4, France
⁵ Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IPAG, 38000 Grenoble, France
⁶ European Southern Observatory (ESO), Garching bei München, Germany
⁷ Millennium Nucleus on Young Exoplanets and their Moons (YEMS), Chile
⁸ Departamento de Física, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Avenida Victor Jara 3659, Santiago, Chile
⁹ Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London, Holmbury St Mary, Dorking, Surrey RH5 6NT, UK
¹⁰ Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0HA, UK
¹¹ Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, Hawaii, USA
¹² Instituto de Estudios Astrofísicos, Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias, Universidad Diego Portales, Avenida Ejército Libertador 441, Santiago, Chile
¹³ Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
¹⁴ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria 16, 20133 Milano, Italy
¹⁵ Department of Astronomy, Columbia University, 538 W. 120th Street, Pupin Hall, New York, NY, USA
¹⁶ Department of Astronomy, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
¹⁷ Observatoire de Genève, Université de Genève, 51 Ch. des Maillettes, 1290 Sauverny, Switzerland
¹⁸ Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Konigstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
¹⁹ Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, PO Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
²⁰ Department of Astronomy, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
²¹ INAF – Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania, Via S. Sofia 78, 95123 Catania, Italy
²² Department of Astronomy, The University of Michigan West Hall 323, 1085 S. University Avenue Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
²³ School of Physics and Astronomy, Monash University, Vic 3800, Australia
²⁴ ETH Zürich, Department of Physics, Wolfgang-Pauli-Strasse 27, CH-8093, Zürich, Switzerland
²⁵ Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Vicolo dell’Osservatorio 5, 35122 Padova, Italy

Received: 27 July 2023
Accepted: 13 November 2023

Abstract

The sample of planet-forming disks observed by high-contrast imaging campaigns over the last decade is mature enough to enable the demographical analysis of individual star-forming regions. We present the full census of Taurus sources with VLT/SPHERE polarimetric images available. The whole sample sums up to 43 targets (of which 31 have not been previously published) corresponding to one-fifth of the Class II population in Taurus and about half of such objects that are observable. A large fraction of the sample is apparently made up of isolated faint disks (equally divided between small and large self-shadowed disks). Ambient signal is visible in about one-third of the sample. This probes the interaction with the environment and with companions or the outflow activity of the system. The central portion of the Taurus region almost exclusively hosts faint disks, while the periphery also hosts bright disks interacting with their surroundings. The few bright disks are found around apparently older stars. The overall picture is that the Taurus region is in an early evolutionary stage of planet formation. Yet, some objects are discussed individually, as in an intermediate or exceptional stage of the disk evolution. This census provides a first benchmark for the comparison of the disk populations in different star forming regions.