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

Poster 2S042

The Structure and Evolution of Circumstellar Disks Revealed by Mid-Infrared Interferometry

Ratzka, Thorsten (USM Munich)
Roccatagliata, Veronica (USM Munich)
Grellmann, Rebekka (ESO Santiago)
Köhler, Rainer (MPIA Heidelberg)

Abstract:
Circumstellar discs transport angular momentum, serve as reservoir from which the central stars accrete gas and dust, and are the sites where planets form. The evolution of these discs, however, is only coarsely known today. For a better understanding it is essential to resolve the distribution and composition of the dust in the discs\' warm, inner parts. Differences between the circumstellar discs of the components of binary systems provide further insights. With the 10 - 20 milli-arcsec spatial resolution offered by the MID-infrared Interferometric instrument (MIDI) at the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) we were able to resolve the circumstellar disks of several low-mass young stellar objects, e.g., T Tau, GV Tau, SVS 20, and TW Hya. The spectrally dispersed interferometric data in the wavelength range between 8 and 13 micron are also well suited to study radial changes of the dust composition and grain growth, a prerequisite for planet formation.

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