Molecular Similarity and Water Diversity in Coeval Binary Disks: JWST/MIRI Observations of Sz 65 and Sz 66

arXiv:2605.28043 · astro-ph.EP · Submitted 2026-05-27 · Read on arXiv

Jinghuai Yao, Ke Zhang, Andrea Banzatti, Naman S. Bajaj, Ilaria Pascucci, James Miley, Geoffrey A. Blake, Colette Salyk, John M. Carpenter, Paola Pinilla, Lucas A. Cieza, Miguel Vioque, Benoît Tabone

astro-ph.EP

Submitted: 2026-05-27

Comments: Published in The Astrophysical Journal; 23 figures, 4 tables

Journal ref: The Astrophysical Journal, 1005, 70 (2026)

DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ae736e

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

The gist: We present JWST/MIRI Medium Resolution Spectrometer spectra of the wide-separation (projected separation = 980 au) binary protoplanetary disks Sz 65 (K7; 0.68 M) and Sz 66 (M3; 0.30 M), reduced using

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Abstract

We present JWST/MIRI Medium Resolution Spectrometer spectra of the wide-separation (projected separation = 980 au) binary protoplanetary disks Sz 65 (K7; 0.68 M) and Sz 66 (M3; 0.30 M), reduced using the uniform pipeline of the JWST Disk Infrared Spectral Chemistry Survey. Both disks show rich molecular emission, including H 2 O, CO 2, HCN, C 2 H 2, and OH. The scaled spectra of the two disks exhibit remarkably similar H 2 O, CO 2, and HCN line emission in the 13--18 mu m region, with the only notable difference being stronger C 2 H 2 emission in the primary (Sz 65). Beyond 18 mu m, the difference in H 2 O line emission between the two disks increases. Both the flux ratios and the slab-model-derived mass ratios of cold to hot H 2 O (about 200 K to about 750 K) and warm to hot H 2 O (about 450 K to about 750 K) are significantly higher in the secondary (Sz 66). Because binary stars share nearly the same age and metallicity, and as both disks appear compact in millimeter emission (<30 au), we suggest that the excess cold H 2 O in the secondary is best explained by its unstructured dust disk, in contrast to the primary, which shows gaps at 6 and 20 au. The enhanced cold water in the secondary is consistent with efficient pebble drift across the water snow line and increased H 2 O vapor from the sublimation of icy mantles. Our results demonstrate that wide-separation binaries can serve as powerful control samples for isolating the impact of individual disk properties on inner-disk chemistry and evolution.

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