Early Planet Formation in Embedded Disks (eDisk). VIII. A Small Protostellar Disk around the Extremely Low Mass and Young Class 0 Protostar IRAS 15398–3359

Abstract

Protostellar disks are an ubiquitous part of the star formation process and the future sites of planet formation. As part of the Early Planet Formation in Embedded Disks large program, we present high angular resolution dust continuum (∼40 mas) and molecular line (∼150 mas) observations of the Class 0 protostar IRAS 15398–3359. The dust continuum is small, compact, and centrally peaked, while more extended dust structures are found in the outflow directions. We perform a 2D Gaussian fitting and find the deconvolved size and 2σ radius of the dust disk to be 4.5 × 2.8 au and 3.8 au, respectively. We estimate the gas+dust disk mass assuming optically thin continuum emission to be 0.6M J–1.8M J, indicating a very low mass disk. The CO isotopologues trace components of the outflows and inner envelope, while SO traces a compact, rotating disk-like component. Using several rotation curve fittings on the position–velocity diagram of the SO emission, the lower limits of the protostellar mass and gas disk radius are 0.022 M ⊙ and 31.2 au, respectively, from our Modified 2 single power-law fitting. A conservative upper limit of the protostellar mass is inferred to be 0.1 M ⊙. The protostellar mass accretion rate and the specific angular momentum at the protostellar disk edge are found to be in the range of (1.3–6.1) × 10−6 M ⊙ yr−1 and (1.2–3.8) × 10−4 km s−1 pc, respectively, with an age estimated between 0.4 × 104 yr and 7.5 × 104 yr. At this young age with no clear substructures in the disk, planet formation would likely not yet have started. This study highlights the importance of high-resolution observations and systematic fitting procedures when deriving dynamical properties of deeply embedded Class 0 protostars.