We present the results from a Submillimeter Array survey of the 887 \mu m continuum emission from the protoplanetary disks around 95 young stars in the young cluster NGC 2024 .
Emission was detected from 22 infrared sources , with flux densities from \sim 5 to 330 mJy ; upper limits ( at 3 \sigma ) for the other 73 sources range from 3 to 24 mJy .
For standard assumptions , the corresponding disk masses range from \sim 0.003 to 0.2 M _ { \odot } , with upper limits at 0.002–0.01 M _ { \odot } .
The NGC 2024 sample has a slightly more populated tail at the high end of its disk mass distribution compared to other clusters , but without more information on the nature of the sample hosts it remains unclear if this difference is statistically significant or a superficial selection effect .
Unlike in the Orion Trapezium , there is no evidence for a disk mass dependence on the ( projected ) separation from the massive star IRS 2b in the NGC 2024 cluster .
We suggest that this is due to either the cluster youth or a comparatively weaker photoionizing radiation field .