Infrared Studies of Circumstellar Dust in Planet-Forming Exo-Systems

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(公法111-5)资助的。约翰·霍普金斯大学的凯里·利斯将研究年轻恒星周围小行星、彗星和行星体的形成和演化。这项研究将把对星盘中尘埃的中红外观测与对太阳系彗星、星际尘埃和陨石的行星天文学研究进行比较。他将专注于确定尘埃物质(包括水、冰和多环芳烃)的位置、数量以及矿物学和元素组成，以推断产生尘埃的母体的组成、位置和最小质量。目标是了解这些年轻太阳系的演化过程，并确定有助于建立更好的太阳系形成模型的参数。新的光谱清单包括一个100万年前的系统，其光谱特征类似于彗星；一个适合类地行星形成的年龄的系统；一个显示超高速碰撞的光谱特征的系统，如形成月球或剥离水星表层的那些；以及一个具有非常原始的尘埃(如星际介质中的尘埃)的“成熟”系统，这表明高温处理和径向混合不在那里发生。利塞博士还将纳入赫歇尔太空望远镜的结果，以改进圆盘外部冰冷尘埃的模型，同时为詹姆斯·韦伯太空望远镜任务在未来十年对这些系统和其他系统进行分辨率光谱成像铺平道路。将与来自大型望远镜和即将到来的阿塔卡马大毫米阵列天文台的地面光学/红外线图像建立联系。这些新的数据集将有助于限制恒星周围物质的位置，改进尘埃成分和质量的确定，母体的分类，以及对尘埃进行操作的物理过程。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Dr. Carey Lisse of Johns Hopkins University will investigate the formation and evolution of asteroids, comets, and planetary bodies around young stars. The research will compare mid-infrared observations of dust in circumstellar disks to planetary astronomy studies of solar system comets, interplanetary dust, and meteorites. He will focus on determining the location, amount, and mineralogical and elemental composition of the material (including water ice and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) to infer the composition, location, and minimum mass of the parent bodies producing the dust. The goal is to obtain an understanding of the evolutionary processes in these young solar systems, and to determine parameters that will aid in the creation of better models of solar system formation. Included in the list of new spectra are a 1 million year old system with a spectral signature like that of comets; a system at the right age for terrestrial planet formation; one showing spectral signatures of hypervelocity impacts like the ones that formed the Moon or stripped Mercury of its surface layers; and a 'mature' system with very primitive dust like that in the interstellar medium, suggesting that the high temperature processing and radial mixing did not occur there. Dr. Lisse will also incorporate results from the Herschel Space Telescope to improve models of cold, icy dust in the outer parts of disk, while preparing the way for resolved spectral imaging of these and other systems by the James Webb Space Telescope mission in the next decade. Connections will be made with ground based optical/infra-red imagery from large telescopes and the upcoming Atacama Large Millimeter Array observatory. These new datasets will help constrain the location of the circumstellar material, improving the determination of the dust composition and mass, the taxonomy of the parent bodies, and the physical processes operating on the dust.