Unveiling diverse planet formation environments with millimeter imaging

利用毫米成像揭示多样化的行星形成环境

• 批准号: 2307916
• 负责人: Jane Huang
• 金额: $ 44.93万
• 依托单位: Columbia University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-01 至 2026-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2307916&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Unveiling; diverse; planet; formation; environments

Planets are made from dust, gas, and ice in disks around young stars. Disk observations offer insight into why planet properties vary, and ultimately how places like the Solar System might develop. Planet formation models have been heavily shaped by the nearby, isolated disks that could be most readily observed. To explore variations in planet formation conditions, the program will use radio telescopes to analyze the structure and chemistry of disks in environments that have been characterized in less detail. The investigator will train a graduate and an undergraduate student. She will also mentor underrepresented public high school students as part of Columbia University's Engineering the Next Generation program.This program will conduct sensitive observational studies of protoplanetary disks under conditions that have traditionally been challenging to characterize in order to provide a better understanding of how the circumstances of planet formation might deviate from those of the best-studied systems. Molecular line and dust continuum images from the Atacama Large Millimeter/Sub-millimeter Array will be used to compare the chemical properties of disks undergoing late infall of cloud/envelope material to previous observations of isolated disks, re-evaluate the evolutionary classification of an apparently young, embedded disk exhibiting evidence of planet-disk interactions, and search for disk substructures in a highly irradiated star-forming region to assess whether planet-disk interactions occur in a manner similar to nearby, less-irradiated regions. The investigator will also use widefield CO mapping with the Green Bank Telescope to characterize the mass and distribution of the large-scale gas reservoir available to a disk undergoing late infall.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

行星是由年轻恒星周围盘中的尘埃、气体和冰组成的。圆盘观测可以深入了解行星特性为何变化，以及最终像太阳系这样的地方可能如何发展。行星形成模型在很大程度上受到附近最容易观察到的孤立圆盘的影响。为了探索行星形成条件的变化，该计划将使用射电望远镜来分析在不太详细的环境中盘的结构和化学成分。研究者将培训一名研究生和一名本科生。作为哥伦比亚大学下一代工程计划的一部分，她还将指导代表性不足的公立高中学生。该计划将在传统上难以描述的条件下对原行星盘进行敏感的观察研究，以便更好地了解情况如何行星形成的过程可能与研究最充分的系统的结果不同。来自阿塔卡马大型毫米/亚毫米阵列的分子线和尘埃连续体图像将用于将经历云/包络材料晚期坠落的圆盘的化学性质与之前对孤立圆盘的观察进行比较，重新评估明显的进化分类年轻的嵌入式盘展示了行星盘相互作用的证据，并在高辐射的恒星形成区域中寻找盘子结构，以评估行星盘相互作用是否以类似于附近的方式发生，辐射较少的地区。研究人员还将使用 Green Bank 望远镜进行宽场 CO 测绘，以描述正在经历晚期坠落的圆盘可用的大型气藏的质量和分布。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。