Detection of warm molecular hydrogen in the circumstellar disk around the Herbig Ae star HD97048

We present high resolution spectroscopic mid-infrared observations of the circumstellar disk around the Herbig Ae star HD97048 with the VLT Imager and Spectrometer for the mid-InfraRed (VISIR). We detect the S(1) pure rotational line of molecular hydrogen (H2) at 17.035 microns arising from the disk around the star. This detection reinforces the claim that HD97048 is a young object surrounded by a flared disk at an early stage of evolution. The emitting warm gas is located within the inner 35 AU of the disk. The line-to-continuum flux ratio is much higher than expected from models of disks at local thermodynamics equilibrium. We investigate the possible physical conditions, such as a gas-to-dust mass ratio higher than 100 and different excitation mechanisms of molecular hydrogen (X-ray heating, shocks, ...) in order to explain the detection. We tentatively estimate the mass of warm gas to be in the range from 0.01 to nearly 1 Jupiter Mass. Further observations are needed to better constrain the excitation mechanisms as well as the mass of gas.