The Herbig Ae star, AB Aur, was observed at wavelengths of 11.7 and 17.9 microns using the Cornell SpectroCam-10 imaging spectrometer on the 5 m Hale Telescope. The observed images were deconvolved using a Bayesian estimator which provided superresolution from the incorporation of prior information (the positivity of intensity and the finite support of the emission); this yielded an angular resolution of ∼0".2, which subtends ∼30 AU at a distance of 160 pc. Our deconvolved images have resolved the source at both wavelengths and show source diameters of approximately 40 and 80 AU at 11.7 and 17.9 microns, respectively. At 11.7 microns, the source exhibits some complex structure which has been confirmed using observations on two separate observing runs and different observing techniques; one characteristic of this structure is the presence of a central depression. The source appearance is markedly different at 17.9 microns and is characterized by a central component which is flanked by a pair of weaker, diametrically opposed features suggestive of an edge-on disk. We hypothesize that such a disk surrounds a tenuous, roughly spherical cloud which produces the silicate emission feature and which dominates the 11.7 microns emission.
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Marsh et al. (1995) studied this question.