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Carey Lisse将研究年轻恒星周围的小行星、彗星和行星体的形成和演化。这项研究将把中红外观测到的星周盘尘埃与行星天文学对太阳系彗星、行星际尘埃和陨石的研究进行比较。他将专注于确定物质（包括水冰和多环芳烃）的位置、数量、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。其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。在新光谱列表中包括一个100万年前的系统，其光谱特征与彗星相似；处于适宜类地行星形成年龄的星系；其中一幅显示了形成月球或剥离水星表层的超高速撞击的光谱特征；还有一个“成熟”的星系，在星际介质中有非常原始的尘埃，这表明那里没有发生高温处理和径向混合。利塞博士还将利用赫歇尔太空望远镜（Herschel Space Telescope）的结果，改进星盘外部冰冷尘埃的模型，同时为詹姆斯·韦伯太空望远镜（James Webb Space Telescope）在未来10年对这些星系和其他星系进行清晰的光谱成像做好准备。连接将与地面光学/红外图像从大型望远镜和即将到来的阿塔卡马大型毫米波阵列天文台。这些新的数据集将有助于确定星周物质的位置，改进对尘埃组成和质量的确定，对母体的分类，以及对尘埃运行的物理过程。

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.