Water in space: from interstellar clouds to planet-forming disks

Ewine F. van Dishoeck, Leiden Observatory, The Netherlands


Water is a key molecule in the physics and chemistry of regions in
which new stars and planets are born. In the 'Water in Star-forming
Regions with Herschel' (WISH) Key Program, we have obtained a
comprehensive set of gaseous water data toward a large sample of
well-characterized protostars, covering a wide range of masses and
luminosities -from the lowest to the highest mass protostars-, as well
as evolutionary stages -from the earliest stages represented by
pre-stellar cores to the late stages represented by the pre-main
sequence stars surrounded only by disks.  The data probe dynamical
processes associated with forming stars and planets (outflow, infall,
expansion), test basic gas-phase and gas-grain chemical processes, and
reveal the chemical evolution of water into planet-forming disks and
icy solar system objects such as comets. Recent Atacama Large
Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) images of transitional disks
revealing sites where planetesimal formation is currently taking place
will be presented as well.

More details can be found at http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/WISH.