Gas in the Planet-Forming Region of Circumstellar Disks: High Dispersion Infrared Spectroscopy and Spectro-Astrometry

恒星盘行星形成区域中的气体：高色散红外光谱和光谱天体测量

• 批准号: 0708922
• 负责人: Geoffrey Blake
• 金额: $ 39.99万
• 依托单位: California Institute of Technology
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-09-15 至 2012-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0708922&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Gas; Planet; Forming; Region; Circumstellar

Dr. Geoffrey Blake (Calfornia Institute of Technology) will lead a collaborative research program with researchers at Leiden University that will utilize the Keck Near Infrared Spectrometer (Keck-NIRSPEC) and the Very Large Telescope Cryogenic High-Resolution Infrared Echelle Spectrograph (VLT-CRIRES) to study the properties and evolution of the gas in protoplanetary disks. Circumstellar disks around young stars provide the pivotal link between star formation and (exo)-planetary science. The physical and chemical structures of these disks, along with their transport properties and evolutionary timescales, play a central role in determining what sort of planetary system, if any, can be formed. Probes of the gas in the inner few tens of Astronomical Units (AU) (the planet-building zone) are particularly needed to distinguish between competing planetary formation models. While the direct imaging of the gas in such regions lies several years into the future, infrared spectroscopy and spectro-astrometry provide an alternative route. Dr. Blake, and others, have recently shown that the fundamental rovibrational emission from carbon monoxide near 4.7 µm provides a widely observable diagnostic of the gas in the 0.5-50 AU region of circumstellar disks.The radiative transfer tools to be developed as part of this proposal will benefit the entire astronomical community. The results of this research project will guide observations with the next generation of microwave/THz and infrared telescopes, and should enable detailed and quantitative models to be constructed of the planet-forming regions of circumstellar disks. This program will also push ground-based infrared spectroscopy and spectro-astrometry to their limits, and will require the optimization of data acquisition, calibration, and reduction routines to achieve a dynamic range close to that imposed by photon statistics. Such routines will be of use to a wide range of observational programs, including infrared radial velocity efforts and the characterization of extrasolar planetary atmospheres from transit measurements. At least four graduate students and several undergraduates will be trained in an exceptionally interdisciplinary manner as part of this research program. Dr. Blake's group is also highly involved in the Caltech Science for Early Educational Development and The Caltech Precollege Science Initiative K-12 educational programs, and is developing new teaching modules for a variety of grade levels.

Geoffrey Blake 博士（加州理工学院）将与莱顿大学的研究人员领导一项合作研究项目，该项目将利用凯克近红外光谱仪 (Keck-NIRSPEC) 和甚大望远镜低温高分辨率红外阶梯光栅光谱仪 (VLT-CRIRES) ) ) 研究年轻恒星周围原行星盘中气体的性质和演化，提供了恒星形成和恒星形成之间的关键联系。 （外）行星科学。这些圆盘的物理和化学结构，以及它们的传输特性和演化时间尺度，在确定可以形成什么样的行星系统（如果有）方面发挥着核心作用。特别需要内部几十个天文单位（AU）（行星形成区）来区分相互竞争的行星形成模型，而对这些区域中的气体进行直接成像需要几年的时间，红外光谱和光谱天体测量法提供了一条替代途径，Blake 博士和其他人最近表明，4.7 µm 附近的一氧化碳的基本振动发射为星周盘 0.5-50 AU 区域的气体提供了广泛可观测的诊断。作为该提案的一部分而开发的传输工具将使整个天文学界受益，该研究项目的结果将指导下一代微波/太赫兹和红外观测。该计划还将把地面红外光谱和光谱天体测量推向极限，并需要优化数据采集和校准。 ，以及减少程序以实现接近光子统计所施加的动态范围，此类程序将用于广泛的观测计划，包括红外径向速度工作和太阳系外行星大气的表征。作为该研究计划的一部分，至少四名研究生和几名本科生将以特殊的跨学科方式接受培训，并积极参与加州理工学院早期教育发展科学和加州理工学院预科科学计划 K。 -12个教育项目，并且正在为各个年级开发新的教学模块。