TITLE: Grain Growth and Planet Formation from Ground-Based Adaptive Optics to
JWST

SPEAKER: Andy Skemer, University of Arizona (Steward Observatory)

Tuesday 2009 August 18
11:00 am Seminar
NASA Ames Building N245, Room 215

ABSTRACT:

The morphology of the 10 micron silicate feature in T Tauri stars can be
used to infer grain-growth, which is one of the initial steps to planet
formation.Ê The stellar properties that correlate with grain-growth
evolution are still unknown, in part, because the effects of stellar age
are difficult to disentangle in large samples.

I will review current knowledge of grain growth in young circumstellar
disks, and describe our survey to disentangle the age degeneracy by
resolving coeval young binary stars with mid-infared spectroscopy.Ê Our
survey uses the 6.5 meter MMT and its deformable secondary adaptive
optics system, which is able to produce JWST-like images, albeit with
much lower sensitivity.Ê As such, our survey is useful as precursory
science to JWST, which, when operational, will be a tremendous tool for
understanding grain growth and planet formation.