Precise distance to the DraChi protoplanetary disk

Determine the precise heliocentric distance to the edge-on protoplanetary disk system DraChi (IRAS 23077+6707), which is not associated with a known star-forming region and for which only an approximate value of about 300 pc is inferred from Gaia DR3 stellar extinctions. A precise distance is required to robustly constrain the disk’s physical size and mass derived from radiative transfer modeling.

Background

DraChi is not associated with a recognized star-forming region, making parallax- or association-based distance determinations challenging. The authors adopt a working distance of roughly 300 pc by identifying extinction breakpoints in Gaia DR3 data along the line of sight, but they stress that this is not a precise measurement.

The inferred disk radius and mass scale with distance. For example, at 500 pc the modeled disk radius would increase to ~2750 AU and the disk mass to >0.5 M⊙, whereas at 100 pc the stellar luminosity would be too low for a typical Herbig Ae/Be star. A precise distance is therefore critical to accurately place DraChi in context with other protoplanetary disks.