Submillimeter photometry and disk masses of T Tauri disk systems

Submillimeter photometric measurements of T Tauri stars, which are suspected of having circumstellar disks, are presented. The sources T Tau, HL Tau, DG Tau, HK Tau, DO Tau, GM Aur in Taurus-Auriga and VSSG 23 in Ophiuchus were detected. For the most luminous sources, detections were obtained at all of the observed wavelengths (1100, 800, 600, 450, and 350 microns); for the less luminous sources, detections were obtained only at the longer wavelengths (usually 800 and 1100 microns). The submillimeter emission is interpreted as arising from circumstellar disks and estimates are derived for the disk mass which are found to be in the range 0.05-1.0 solar mass. These disk masses are larger than the 'minimum-mass' solar nebula and suggest that planets can form in these systems.