Speaker
Description
Very Low Mass Stars (VLMSs) are the most abundant stars in our galaxy. The occurrence rate of Earth-like planets orbiting VLMS is higher than for higher-mass stars. Their planet-forming disks evolve fast, which makes them ideal laboratories to study Earth-like planet formation in the evolved disk. The faintness of VLMSs and the small sizes of their disks make their observations challenging. With its high resolution and sensitivity, the JWST/Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) has enabled detailed characterization of the gas and dust. Within the MINDS JWST GTO program, 10 VLMS disks were observed. These disks exhibit a variety of dust spectral signatures: six showing clear silicate emission, three exhibiting dust-depleted spectra, and one appearing as an edge-on disk. In addition, all sources emit strong hydrocarbon gas emissions with a significant pseudo-continuum. We investigate the relation between disk evolution, silicate dust emission, and hydrocarbon optical depth. Our findings suggest: 1) as the disk evolves, grain growth and settling cause the dust opacity in the disk surface layers to decrease; 2) this allows us to look deeper in the disk; and 3) as we look deeper into the disk, the column density of hydrocarbons increases. These results highlight how the dust evolution influences the observation of gas emission in VLMSs.
| Talk category | NOVA Network 2 |
|---|---|
| Preference for a talk or poster | Talk |
| Talk preference for PhD students | 4th year PhD |
