Planet Formation at Solar System Scales with the James Webb Space Telescope

行星系统就像我们自己的形式，在新生恒星周围巨大的原始气体和尘埃圆盘中。该项目将使用詹姆斯·韦伯太空望远镜观察这些盘状物，以揭示形成行星的盘状物本身的详细的原位物理信息。我们将利用宇宙飞船上唯一由澳大利亚设计的仪器--孔径掩蔽干涉仪，提供天文学中有史以来最清晰的红外图像。这为活跃生长的原行星、圆盘上雕刻的环和缝隙以及彗星残骸的重力雕刻图案产生了新的物理学原理。用这些数据对抗最先进的模型将立即对行星系统的形成产生深刻的见解，包括我们自己的。

Planetary systems like our own form within vast disks of primordial gas and dust around newborn stars. This project will observe such disks spanning a range of ages with the James Webb Space Telescope to reveal the detailed in-situ physics of planet-forming disks themselves. We will deliver the sharpest-ever infrared images in astronomy, exploiting the only Australian-designed instrument on the spacecraft: the Aperture Masking Interferometer. This yields new physics for actively growing protoplanets, carved rings and gaps in disks, and gravitationally sculpted patterns of leftover cometary debris. Confronting state-of-the-art models with these data will immediately yield profound insights into planetary system formation, including our own.