A dusty streamer infalling onto the disk of a class I protostar

Abstract

Context. Observations of interstellar material infalling onto star- and planet-forming systems have become increasingly common thanks to recent advancements in radio interferometry. These structures have the potential to alter the dynamics of protoplanetary disks significantly by triggering the formation of substructures, inducing shocks, and modifying their physical and chemical properties. Moreover, the protoplanetary disks are replenished with new material, which increases the overall mass budget for planet formation. Aims. In this study, we combine new ALMA band 3 and archival band 6 observations to characterize the dust content and infall rate of a 4000 au arc-like structure that is infalling onto [MGM2012] 512 (hereafter M512), a class I young stellar object located in the Lynds 1641 region of the Orion A molecular cloud. Methods. We detected the extended dust emission from this structure in both ALMA bands. We tested whether the velocity pattern of the streamer is consistent with infalling trajectories by means of analytical streamline models. We measured spectral index maps for the first time and derived a dust opacity-index profile along a streamer. We constrained its grain properties and mass. Results. We find that the arc structure is consistent with infalling motions. We measure a spectral index α ~ 3.2 across the entire structure and a dust opacity index β ~ 1.6. Considering grain properties consistent with the measured β, the structure can host up to 245 M⊕ of dust, which exceeds or is comparable to the mass of the inner unresolved 600 au, which contains the protoplanetary disk of M512. Assuming a typical dust-to-gas ratio of 1% for the streamer, the free-fall timescales (50 kyr) imply total mass-infall rates up to 1.5 × 10−6 M⊙ yr−1. M512 has been classified as an outbursting source with multi-epoch WISE photometry. It is thus an interesting case study for exploring the possible connection between infalling streamers and accretion outbursts. Conclusions. M512 is a unique source for which dust continuum emission of an arc-like streamer extending out to 4000 au can be characterized in a dual-band analysis. The dust properties are similar to those in the interstellar medium and imply a high dust mass. A massive streamer like this can affect the evolution of the star- and planet-forming inner system strongly.