The GRAVITY young stellar object survey XI. Imaging the hot gas emission around the Herbig Ae star HD58647

Aims. We aim to investigate the origin of the HI Br gamma emission in young stars by using GRAVITY to image the innermost region of circumstellar disks, where important physical processes such as accretion and winds occur. With high spectral and angular resolution, we focus on studying the continuum and the HI Br gamma-emitting area of the Herbig star HD 58647. Methods. Using VLTI-GRAVITY, we conducted observations of HD 58647 with both high spectral and high angular resolution. Thanks to the extensive uv coverage, we were able to obtain detailed images of the circumstellar environment at a sub-au scale, specifically capturing the continuum and the Br gamma-emitting region. Through the analysis of velocity-dispersed images and photocentre shifts, we were able to investigate the kinematics of the HI Br gamma-emitting region. Results. The recovered continuum images show extended emission where the disk major axis is oriented along a position angle of 14 degrees. The size of the continuum emission at 5-sigma levels is similar to 1.5 times more extended than the sizes reported from geometrical fitting (3.69 mas +/- 0.02 mas). This result supports the existence of dust particles close to the stellar surface, screened from the stellar radiation by an optically thick gaseous disk. Moreover, for the first time with GRAVITY, the hot gas component of HD 58647 traced by the Br gamma has been imaged. This allowed us to constrain the size of the Br gamma-emitting region and study the kinematics of the hot gas; we find its velocity field to be roughly consistent with gas that obeys Keplerian motion. The velocity-dispersed images show that the size of the hot gas emission is from a more compact region than the continuum (2.3 mas +/- 0.2 mas). Finally, the line phases show that the emission is not entirely consistent with Keplerian rotation, hinting at a more complex structure in the hot gaseous disk.