Physics and chemistry of star and planet formation in the ALMA era

Bergin, Edwin

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/59145 Copy

Description

Title

Physics and chemistry of star and planet formation in the ALMA era

Author(s)

Bergin, Edwin

Issue Date

2014-06-17

Keyword(s)

Mini-symposium: Astronomical Molecular Spectroscopy in the Age of ALMA

Abstract

ALMA will open up new avenues of exploration encompassing the wide range of star formation in our galaxy and peering into the central heart of planet-forming circumstellar disks. As we seek to explore the origins of stars and planets molecular emission will be at the front and center of many studies probing gas physics and chemistry. In this talk I will discus some of the areas where we can expect significant advances due to the increased sensitivity and superb spatial resolution of ALMA. In star-forming cores, a rich chemistry is revealed that may be the simpler molecular precursors to more complex organics, such as amino acids, seen within primitive rocks in our own solar system. ALMA will provide new information regarding the relative spatial distribution within a given source for a host of organics, sampling tens to hundreds of transitions of a variety of molecules, including presumably new ones. In this area there is a rich synergy with existing ground and space-based data, including Herschel/Spitzer. Here the increased sampling of sources to be enabled by ALMA should bring greater clarity toward the key products of interstellar chemistry and further constrain processes. On smaller Solar System scales, for over a decade most observations of planet-forming disks focused on the dust thermal continuum emission as a probe of the gas content and structure. ALMA will enable reliable and direct studies of gas to explore the evolving physics of planet-formation, the gas dissipation timescales (i.e. the upper limit to the timescale for giant planet birth), and also the chemistry. It is this chemistry that sets the composition of gas giants and also influences the ultimate composition of water and organic materials that are delivered to terrestrial worlds. Here I will show how we can use molecular emission to determine the gas thermal structure of a disk system and the total gas content - key astrophysical quantities. This will also enable more constrained chemical studies that will seek to determine whether the chemistry of planetary birth is universal and similar to our own.

Publisher

International Symposium on Molecular Spectroscopy

Type of Resource

text

Language

en

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/59145

DOI

https://doi.org/10.15278/isms.2014.TF01

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2014 by the authors. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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