Project K
Take a closer look: studying the properties of the planet-forming inner regions of protoplanetary disks
Carlo Manara & Stefano Facchini
Exoplanets form in the inner regions of protoplanetary disks. We will get the still unknown properties of these regions using multi-epoch spectra of young stars periodically occulted by their disks.
The inner regions of protoplanetary disks (<0.5 au) are known to be highly structured and variable, and are a key region to study in order to understand how exoplanets form. Indeed, we know that a huge fraction of exoplanets are found to be within this distance from their host star. About 20% of the young stars with disks show deep quasi- or a-periodic dips in their light curves, and are thus called “dippers”. These dips must be caused by inner disk material brought along the line of sight of the star. By analyzing multiple epochs of VLT/X-Shooter and VLT/UVES spectra of such stars we can constrain the properties of the dust grains entrained in these regions, as well as the gas-to-dust ratio, a key parameter for planet formation models (e.g., Schneider, Manara, Facchini et al. 2018). This is a unique opportunity to gain insight into the regions where rocky planets are born, regions that are otherwise inaccessible with direct imaging techniques.
The student will analyze new and already reduced data for one of these targets, learn about analysis of absorption and emission lines in the spectra, and determine the composition and properties of the inner regions of the disk of this target.
The analysis will be carried out using the python scripts developed by the advisors.
#protoplanetarydisks #exoplanet #dippers #planetformation #innerdisk #spectroscopy #python
