About
I am an Astronomer at the ALMA Regional Centre (ARC) at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Garching bei München, Germany.
I am the Subsystem Scientist for the ALMA Observing Tool (OT) and for SnooPI. I am also deputy of the EU Phase 2 Group, and editor of the European ARC Newsletter.
My main scientific interest is in star and planet formation, with a focus on planet-forming disks and on the carachterization of their physical and chemical properties. For my studies I mostly use sub-mm observations and physical-chemical modeling.
The final version of the Protorstars and Planets VII review chapter Setting the Stage for Planet Formation: Measurements and Implications of the Fundamental Disk Properties (Miotello, A.; Kamp, I.; Birnstiel, T., Cleeves, L. I.; Kataoka, A.) has been submitted to the editors.
The ALMA Cycle 9 Large Program The ALMA Disk-Exoplanet C/Onnection (DECO, PI: I. Cleeves, co-PIs: A. Miotello, D. Anderson, Y.Aikawa, V. Guzman) has been accepted and will deliver the first chemical survey of a large sample of nearby protoplanetary disks.
The MIAPP (hybrid) Workshop Gaps, rings, spirals, and vortices: structure formation in planet-forming disks has successfully taken place in Garching.
My Research Projects
Fundamental Disk Properties
A review on the fundamental properties of disks including the relevant observational techniques to probe their nature, modeling methods, and the respective caveats.
Protostars & Planets VII Chapter 14 (2022)
Compact Disks
This work investigates whether the observed population of CO-faint disks comprises radially extended and low-mass disks - as commonly assumed so far - or intrinsically radially compact disks.
Published on A&A (2021)
C/O > 1 in Lupus
ALMA C2H observations favour volatile carbon and oxygen depletion rather than fast gas dispersal to explain the faint CO observations for most of the targeted discs, pointing to large C/O > 1 ratios.
Published on A&A (2019)
Probing Σgas with 13CO
This work investigates whether spatially resolved observations of rarer CO isotopologues, such as 13CO, may be good tracers of the gas surface density distribution in disks.
Published on A&A (2018)
The puzzle of protoplanetary disk masses
One of the main properties needed to explain planet formation is the mass of their parent disks. There is however not yet a consensus on how such masses can be reliably measured from observations. In this thesis, I investigate weather less abundant CO isotopologues are good candidates for tracing disk masses.
PhD Thesis (2018)
CO-faint Lupus Disks
Co-based gas-masses in Lupus are often lower than 1 Jupiter Mass. Low CO-based gas masses and gas-to-dust ratios may indicate rapid loss of gas, or alternatively chemical evolution, for example, through sequestering of carbon from CO to more complex molecules, or carbon locked up in larger bodies.
Published on A&A (2017)
Disk gas masses from CO
CO isotope-selective photodissociation has been implemented in the physical-chemical code DALI and more than 800 disk models were run, with the aim to predict how CO isotopologues can be used to infer disk gas masses.
Published on A&A (2016)
CO isotope-selective processes in disks
The aim of this work is to build an initial grid of physical-chemical models with an isotopologue-selective treatment of CO isotopologues, to obtain a more accurate determination of disk masses.
Published on A&A (2014)
Grain growth in Class Is
This work shows a comparison between the models and ATCA and SMA observations, which indicates that dust grains may form aggregates up to millimeter size already in the inner regions of the envelopes of Class I Young Stellar Objects.
Published on A&A (2014)
Photoevaporation and grain sizing in Orion 114-426
Deep HST broadband images of the giant (~1000 AU diameter) dark silhouette proplyd 114-426 in the Orion Nebula show that this system is tilted, asymmetric, warped, and photoevaporated. We are also able to map the distribution of dust grains at the northern translucent edge of the disk, dominated by the photoevaporative flow.
Published on ApJ (2012)
Team members at ESO
I am currently supervising two brilliant PhD Students at ESO, Teresa Paneque Carreño, and Aashish Gupta. Teresa's PhD thesis focuses on constrianing the vertical structure of protoplanetary disks and their chemical stratification, exploiting high-resolution ALMA data and geometrical methods. Aashish is exploring the importance of late accretion of fresh material onto Class II disks.
This is the current composition of our group, but new members are likely to join our team in the near future. Stay tuned!
Anna Miotello
is interested in constraining the disk bulk physical properties (mass, surface density distribution, and radial extent) as well as the bulk chemical properties (C/O ratio and metallicity) as these are they set the stage for disk evolution and planet formation.
Read moreAssistant Astronomer
Teresa Paneque Carreño
studies the disk vertical structure and chemical stratification using high angular and spectral resolution ALMA images and geometrical methods. Teresa is also a fantastic science communicator and writer.
Read morePhD Student
Aashish Gupta
explores the impact of late accretion of chemically fresh material onto Class II disks, which may strongly affect disk evolution and planet-formation. Aashish is particularly interested in building a sample of late-accretors and in their carachterization.
Read morePhD Student
Contact me
Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2
85748 Garching, Germany
Office: C.3.55