A Rotating Disk around a High-Mass Young Star

Abstract

We report the discovery of a disk around the young high-mass star IRAS 20126+4104. In the NH3 (1, 1) and (2, 2) lines, we detected a flattened disklike structure (6''$^{{′}{′}}$ -->$^{{′}{′}}$ --> × 3''$^{{′}{′}}$ -->$^{{′}{′}}$ --> or 10,000 × 5000 AU) roughly perpendicular to a bipolar molecular outflow. A velocity gradient exists along the major axis of the disk. The disk rotates faster toward the center. Our findings provide direct verification that disks exist during the formation of high-mass stars.