Protostars and Planets VI, Heidelberg, July 15-20, 2013

Poster 2S019

Crossing the Snow Line: Mapping Water Ice Photo-desorption products in the disks of Herbig stars

Grady, C. (Eureka Scientific and GSFC)
Brown, A. (U. Colorado)
Currie, T. (U. Toronto)
Fukagawa, M. (Osaka U. )
Inoue, A. (Osaka Sangyo University, College of General Education)
Lauroesch, J. (U. Louisville)
Williger, G. (U. Louisville)
Momose, M. (Ibaraki U. )
Muto, T. (Kogakuin U.)
Perrin, M. (STScI)
Schneider, G. (Steward Observatory, U. Arizona)
Sitko, M. (SSI)
Wisniewski, J. (U. Oklahoma)
Woodgate, B. (NASA GSFC)

Abstract:
Water is a key constituent of protoplanetary disks. In our Solar System, small, icy grains are thought to have boosted the disk solid surface density, setting the stage for icy planetesimal formation and ultimately the growth of gas giant planets, while water vapor warms the disk, facilitating chemistry. Survival of water, in either phase, is sensitive to the UV radiation field. Intermediate-mass PMS stars, the Herbig stars, straddle the temperature range where icy grains can survive at r<10 AU to systems where ice is photo-desorbed at the disk surface to beyond 100 AU. While water vapor has proven elusive in these disks, we present preliminary findings on the spatial distribution of water dissociation products, combining new HST/COS and STIS data with data in the literature for 5 Herbig stars. In the next phase of this study we will model the disks following Oka et al. (2012).

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