Dust and Gas in Debris Disks Reveal the Origins of Planetary Systems

该奖项将资助研究，以获取和分析在一些恒星周围的扁平圆盘上发现的气体和尘埃的观测结果。这些盘被称为碎片盘，代表了星周盘演化的最后阶段，恒星的年龄与我们太阳系中巨行星新形成的时代相对应。研究人员将使用ALMA（阿塔卡马大型毫米波/亚毫米波阵列）、SMA（亚毫米波阵列）和CARMA（毫米波天文学联合阵列）望远镜，获得三个明亮的、附近的、边缘上的碎片盘的光谱，这些碎片盘含有比大多数行星形成模型预测的更多的气体。他们的数据将被用来测试这些气体是来自原始气体还是来自蒸发的彗星。这些数据还将用于测量碎片盘的动态状态，这将提供关于磁盘中碰撞速度的信息，这将有助于约束磁盘模型和探测磁盘中是否存在海王星质量的行星。首席研究员将在Van Vleck天文台建立一个新的受保护的基础设施，旨在满足周围社区了解天文研究的需求。他们还将结合学生和教师的公共级研究讲座，以及实践天文学探索，其更大的目标是提高社区成员的科学素养。这个项目将为我们太阳系和其他行星系统的主要行星形成模型提供关键的测试。我们将从三个圆盘系统的尘埃中获得并分析多个气体谱线和连续发射的空间分辨干涉光谱，这三个圆盘系统具有光学薄碎片盘的尘埃特性，但保留了大量在毫米波长下可探测到的分子气体：49 Ceti， HD 21997和HD 14159。他们将测量每个系统的总质量，估计其寿命，并通过对气体管道的多跃迁分析测量每个圆盘的基本化学成分。特别是，他们将观察到多个CO和HCN旋转线，以及连续带。这些数据还将用于测试碰撞演化模型，测量速度色散和最大天体的质量，这些天体搅动了圆盘中的星子群。

This award will fund studies to obtain and analyze observations of gas and dust that are found in flattened disks around some stars. These disks are called debris disks and represent the end stage of circumstellar disk evolution, with stellar ages corresponding to the epoch when giant planets in our solar system were newly formed. The investigators will use the ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array), SMA (Submillimeter Array) and CARMA (Combined Array for Research in Millimter-wave Astronomy) telescopes and obtain spectra of three bright, nearby, edge-on debris disks that contain higher amounts of gas than is predicted by most models of planet formation. Their data will be used to test whether this gas is more likely to be primordial or produced from evaporating comets. The data will also be used measure the dynamical state of the debris disks, which will provide information about collisional velocities in the disk, which will be useful for constraining disk models and for detecting the presence of Neptune-mass planets in the disks. The principal investigator will buld a new protected infrastructure at Van Vleck Observatory, which is designed to accommodate demand from the surrounding community to learn about astronomical research. They will also incorporate public-level research talks by students and faculty, and hands-on astronomy explorations with the larger goal of increasing scientific literacy of the community members. This project will provide critical tests of the leading planet-formation models of our solar system and other planetary systems. Spatially resolved interferometric spectra of multiple gas lines and continuum emission will be obtained and analyzed from dust in three disk systems that have the dust properties of optically thin debris disks, yet retain substantial reservoirs of molecular gas detectable at millimeter wavelengths: 49 Ceti, HD 21997, and HD 14159. They will measure the total mass in each system, estimate its lifetime, and measure the basic chemical composition of each disks through multi-transition analysis of gas lines. In particular, they will observe multiple CO and HCN rotational lines, along with continuum bands. The data will also be used to test collisional evolution models, measure the velocity dispersion and the mass of largest bodies stirring the planetesimal population in the disks.