Physics
Scientific paper
Jul 1995
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1995hst..prop.5876c&link_type=abstract
HST Proposal ID #5876
Physics
Hst Proposal Id #5876 Interstellar Medium
Scientific paper
We propose to study the circumstellar (CS) gas around stars that are similar to Beta Pictoris, the well-known proto- planetary system candidate. This is the final stage of our multiwavelength (IR+Optical+UV) search for possible planetary systems in our sample of the 62 A stars within 25 pc. Since the evolutionary lifetimes of main-sequence A stars roughly correspond to the era of planet formation and subsequent ``heavy bombardment" in our solar system, it is likely that Beta Pic's dust+gas disk is similar to the accretion disk in the primordial solar nebula that led the formation of the Kuiper Belt. Based on our ground-based Ca II and IUE Fe II spectra of the complete volume-limited sample of A stars, we have identified at least 12 stars with possible CS gas. We plan to use the high-resolution and high-S/N capabilities of GHRS to probe the physical conditions in the CS gas. We will use atomic transitions arising from ground and low-lying metastable states to (a) verify our optical and UV CS gas detections, (b) derive accurate CS gas column densities, (c) constrain the absorbing CS gas number density and temperature, and (d) search for and characterize dynamic spectral activity similar to the mass flows seen in Beta Pic. Finally, we will combine our CS gas study with our previous IRAS CS dust survey to probe the link between stars with CS gas and those with dust disks. Our ultimate goal is to ascertain if these stars, as a group, represent some phase of planet formation.
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