Unveiling the Secrets of CI Tauri's Inner Ring

Using ESO's Very Large Telescope, astronomers have studied the inner dusty ring of the young star CI Tauri, located in the Taurus molecular cloud. The observations identified a highly inclined resolved inner disk, whose inner edge is located at a distance of about 21 times the radius of CI Tau from the star. The inner disk of CI Tau showcases a strong misalignment relative to the outer disk seen at submillimeter wavelengths, which could be induced by magnetic warping or by gravitational torques induced by a close-in massive companion. The results also shed more light on the magnetospheric accretion region of CI Tau.