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Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Shadows cast by precessing annuli as evidence for an inclined planet in HD 139614

  • Katie L Milsom1
  • Tim J Harries1
  • Evan A Rich2
  • John D Monnier3
  • Anna S E Laws4,5
  • Benjamin R Setterholm3,6
6 affiliations
  1. 1University of Exeter Department of Physics and Astronomy, , Stocker Rd, Exeter EX4 4QL ,
  2. 2University of Nebraska-Lincoln , 1400 R St., Lincoln, NE, 68588 ,
  3. 3University of Michigan Department of Astronomy, , Ann Arbor, MI 48109 ,
  4. 4University of Exeter Medical School , Exeter ,
  5. 5NIHR Applied Research Collaboration South West (ARC South West) , Exeter ,
  6. 6Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie , Heidelberg ,
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Abstract

We analyse scattered-light images at multiple epochs of the protoplanetary disc HD 139614 taken with GPI and SPHERE instruments. We show that the azimuthal distribution of the surface brightness of the inner bright ring (13 − 21 au) varies with time (likely caused by a structure in the inner-disc at ~1 au) and constrain the timescale of this variation to be <11 months. We show that inner arc (31 − 44 au) is likely a spiral and tightly wound, measuring a pitch angle of 6.1 ± 1.2○. Additionally, we construct a physical model to explain the broad shadow across ~2/3 of the outer disc and the azimuthally asymmetric bright ring (which has a shadow not aligned with the broad shadow). We model the disc using 1D warp equations with a fast radiative transfer code to produce scattered-light images. We setup the disc as three annuli separated by gaps with an inclined perturbing planet between the inner two annuli. The planet causes the inner annuli to tilt and precess independently casting broad shadows across the outer (un-tilted) annulus. These shadows combine to produce a shadow across ~2/3 of the outer disc and an asymmetric bright ring which matches the observations of HD 139614. The precession of the annuli is periodic (so the model matches the observations multiple times) with long precession time-scales (8.4 × 103 and 7.2 × 104 years for the inner and middle annulus respectively) so the shadows are effectively static over accessible observational time-scales.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{milsom2026shadows,
  title = {{Shadows cast by precessing annuli as evidence for an inclined planet in HD 139614}},
  author = {Katie L Milsom and Tim J Harries and Evan A Rich and John D Monnier and Anna S E Laws and Benjamin R Setterholm},
  journal = {Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.1093/mnras/stag1893},
  url = {https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article/doi/10.1093/mnras/stag1893/8869239},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Shadows cast by precessing annuli as evidence for an inclined planet in HD 139614
AU  - Katie L Milsom
AU  - Tim J Harries
AU  - Evan A Rich
AU  - John D Monnier
AU  - Anna S E Laws
AU  - Benjamin R Setterholm
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/06
JO  - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
DO  - 10.1093/mnras/stag1893
UR  - https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article/doi/10.1093/mnras/stag1893/8869239
AB  - We analyse scattered-light images at multiple epochs of the protoplanetary disc HD 139614 taken with GPI and SPHERE instruments. We show that the azimuthal distribution of the surface brightness of the inner bright ring (13 − 21 au) varies with time (likely caused by a structure in the inner-disc at ~1 au) and constrain the timescale of this variation to be <11 months. We show that inner arc (31 − 44 au) is likely a spiral and tightly wound, measuring a pitch angle of 6.1 ± 1.2○. Additionally, we construct a physical model to explain the broad shadow across ~2/3 of the outer disc and the azimuthally asymmetric bright ring (which has a shadow not aligned with the broad shadow). We model the disc using 1D warp equations with a fast radiative transfer code to produce scattered-light images. We setup the disc as three annuli separated by gaps with an inclined perturbing planet between the inner two annuli. The planet causes the inner annuli to tilt and precess independently casting broad shadows across the outer (un-tilted) annulus. These shadows combine to produce a shadow across ~2/3 of the outer disc and an asymmetric bright ring which matches the observations of HD 139614. The precession of the annuli is periodic (so the model matches the observations multiple times) with long precession time-scales (8.4 × 103 and 7.2 × 104 years for the inner and middle annulus respectively) so the shadows are effectively static over accessible observational time-scales.
SN  - 0035-8711
SN  - 1365-2966
ER  -