Peering at the First Stages of Planet Formation: Getting a Clearer View of Grain Growth, Settling, and Clearing in Dusty Disks

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。Catherine Espaillat被授予NSF天文学和天体物理学博士后奖学金，在哈佛-史密森天体物理中心开展一项研究和教育计划。埃斯帕亚特博士将对低质量主序恒星周围原行星盘中的尘埃演化进行量化，这些恒星是我们太阳的前身。为此，PI将在金牛座、查马龙和蛇夫座恒星形成星云内的圆盘中测量颗粒生长和沉降，这是通向行星形成的前两步。除了研究“满的”圆盘外，PI还将瞄准正在清理其圆盘缺口的物体，这一现象很可能是由于新形成的行星造成的。探索这些问题的主要工具将是最先进的D‘Alessio磁盘模型，在这项拟议的研究中，PI将进一步完善该模型。通过将使用中红外斯皮策和远红外赫歇尔数据的光谱能量分布与使用毫米和红外干涉仪获得的空间亮度分布相结合，PI将提供对磁盘中尘埃增长、沉淀和清除数量的自洽分析，这也将作为詹姆斯·韦伯太空望远镜(JWST)未来磁盘研究的指南。在整个项目中获得的系统的、半经验的证据将为尘埃演化和行星形成的理论建模提供必要的洞察力和约束，使我们更接近理解我们自己的太阳系的起源。Espaillat还将与哈佛大学科学导师计划一起开发一个正式的导师培训计划，并将为理科少数族裔学生建立类似的大学导师计划。通过这两个方案，国际和平研究所将培训自愿担任年轻妇女和少数族裔研究生和本科生导师的研究生。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Dr. Catherine Espaillat is awarded an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship to carry out a program of research and education at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Dr. Espaillat will quantify dust evolution in protoplanetary disks around low-mass pre-main sequence stars, the precursors of our own Sun. To this end the PI will measure grain growth and settling, the first two steps towards planet formation, in disks located within the star-forming clouds of Taurus, Chamaeleon, and Ophiuchus. In addition to studying "full" disks the PI will also target objects which are in the process of clearing gaps in their disks, a phenomena which is most likely due to newly formed planets. The main tool in exploring these issues will be the state-of-the-art D'Alessio disk model, which the PI will advance to the next level of sophistication in this proposed study. By combining spectral energy distributions that employ mid-infrared Spitzer and far-infrared Herschel data with spatial brightness distributions obtained with interferometers in the millimeter and infrared, the PI will provide a self-consistent analysis of the amount of dust growth, settling, and clearing in disks, which will also serve as a guide for future disk studies with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The systematic, semi-empirical evidence obtained throughout this project will provide needed insight and constraints to aid in theoretical modeling of dust evolution and planet formation, bringing us a few steps closer to understanding the origin of our own solar system.Dr. Espaillat will also develop a formal mentor-training program with the Harvard College Science Mentors Program and will establish a similar university mentoring program for minority students in science. Through these two programs the PI will train graduate students who have volunteered to serve as mentors to younger women and minority graduate and undergraduate students.