High-resolution Pan-STARRS and SMA observations of IRAS 23077+6707: A giant edge-on protoplanetary disk

We present resolved images of IRAS 23077+6707 (“Dracula’s Chivito”) in 1.3 mm/225 GHz thermal dust and CO gas emission with the Submillimeter Array (SMA) and optical (0.5-$0.8\mu \mathrm{m}$) scattered light with the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS). The Pan-STARRS data show a bipolar distribution of optically scattering dust that is characteristic for disks observed at high inclinations. Its scattered light emission spans $\sim {14}^{\mathrm{\prime }\mathrm{\prime }}$, with two highly asymmetric filaments extending along the upper bounds of each nebula by $\sim 9^{\mathrm{\prime }\mathrm{\prime }}$. The SMA data measure 1.3 mm continuum dust as well as ${}^{12}$CO, ${}^{13}$CO and C${}^{18}$O $J$=2$-$1 line emission over ${12}^{\mathrm{\prime }\mathrm{\prime }}$-${14}^{\mathrm{\prime }\mathrm{\prime }}$ extents, with the gas presenting the typical morphology of a disk in Keplerian rotation, in both position-velocity space and in each CO line spectrum. IRAS 23077+6707 has no reported distance estimate, but if it is located in the Cepheus star-forming region (180-800 pc), it would have a radius spanning thousands of au. Taken together, we infer IRAS 23077+6707 to be a giant and gas-rich edge-on protoplanetary disk, which to our knowledge is the largest in extent so far discovered.