Physics – Optics
Scientific paper
May 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011iaus..280p.105b&link_type=abstract
The Molecular Universe, Posters from the proceedings of the 280th Symposium of the International Astronomical Union held in Tole
Physics
Optics
Scientific paper
The inner regions of protoplanetary disks are thought to be the most active regions for planet formation and thus potentially hold the key to understanding the formation of solar systems like our own. Direct spatial imaging is mainly limited to dust observations. However, spectroscopic studies probe gas within regions that are inaccessible to imaging and trace the dominant mass component. CO is an excellent tracer of the gas being both abundant and easily observable. We have used the CRIRES spectrograph on the ESO VLT to obtain high resolution spectra (R~100,000, v=3 km/s) of the 4.7 micron CO v=1-0 fundamental emission band for a large sample ( 100) young stars with a wide range of physical properties and in various stages of evolution from young strongly accreting disks to transition disks, where dust clearing has begun. Acquisition of such a large sample of CO emission profiles from protoplanetary disks provides an unprecedented opportunity for a broad examination of the gas distribution in a wide variety of circumstellar environments. The high spectral resolution and high dynamic range of CRIRES spectra is essential to resolve the individual line profiles so that velocity information can be used to locate the gas within the disk. CRIRES has the additional advantage of an excellent adaptive optics system allowing spatial resolution of extended emission as in the case of IRS 48. We then compare the spatially resolved gas emission to a Submillimeter Array map of the dust continuum. Detailed knowledge of dust and gas in the inner regions of disks is a key component needed to determine the evolutionary process of how circumstellar disks transform into planetary systems.
Brown Jacqueline
Herczeg Gregory
Pontoppidan Klaus
van Dishoeck Ewine F.
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