Description
Planet-forming disks go from gas-rich, massive disks made of dust and gas into planetary systems containing only small amounts dust. This dust is produced by collisions between smaller planetary objects, such as planetesimals, asteroids, and comets. Traditionally, we talk about protoplanetary (age ~1 Myr), transitional (~5-10 Myr), and debris disks (~10-hundreds of Myr) even though the overlap between these phases may be relevant.
We show that in the transition phase of a disk, when the gas surface densities are reduced but not yet negligible, a seemingly small amount of collisional activity may lead to the production of dust on a level that is observationally relevant by creating regions characterised by an optical depth of 1 or above. The warm emission of low amounts of dust in many transitional planet-forming disks might be caused entirely by second-generation dust, exposing planetary material at a much earlier time than the age that debris disks have traditionally been characterised by.
| Talk category | NOVA Network 2 |
|---|---|
| Preference for a talk or poster | Poster |
