Star and Planet Formation

with the GMT

What sets the stellar/substellar mass function and
how universal is it?
Do all stars form planets and if not, why not?

What causes the diversity of planetary systems?

Alycia J. Weinberger - Carnegie DTM

 Nearby Star Forming Regions

Good News: Most are in the South

Bad News: All are >100 pc away
Ophiuchus -24 120 pc 1 Myr
Lupus -38 100 pc 1 Myr
Corona Aust -37 170 pc 1 Myr
Chamaeleon -77 170 pc 2.5 Myr
Upper Sco -30 140 pc 5 Myr
4 AU at 150 pc = 27 mas (separate inner and outer
Solar System)
Diffraction limit (/D) of GMT at 1.6 m is 13 mas

Weinberger - 6/14/2010
 Planetary Formation Timescales
Star- Massive, Planetesimal
formation gas-rich dominated
to solid disk disk Dust / planet
formation dominated disk
Gas Removal
Giant planets
form

Terrestrial
Astronomers planets
t0 form

106 yrs 107 yrs 108 yrs 109 yrs

CAI / Moon Late Heavy Current age of

Chondrule forming Bombardment the Sun:
Formation Impact (30+ Myr) (600 Myr) 4.5x109 yrs.
Weinberger - 6/14/2010
Alycia Weinberger 2009
 Stellar and Disk Co-Evolution

(Tom Greene)
Weinberger - 6/14/2010
 Embedded protostar with disk
Flat spectrum and/or Class I Class II

Log (Flux Density)

Log (Flux Density)

1 100 1 100
Log() [m] Log() [m]

Want to learn simultaneously about the star and its disk

Weinberger - 6/14/2010
 Initial Mass Function and Disks
How many stars/brown dwarfs are
there?
Do they have disks?
Is the disk lifetime the same as for
stars?
Example: Ophiuchus
Size: ~7 X 7 Deg (cloud core plus
extended region)
GMACS FOV: 8 x 18
NIRMOS FOV:5.5 x 5.5

IMACS limiting magnitude

I~21.5, S/N=30, in 4 hr @ R~2000
10-4 Lsun or 3- 5MJ
15% too faint (>21.5) for IMACS

Weinberger - 6/14/2010 IMACS 12x12 (Gully-Santiago)

 Initial Mass Function in Star Form. Reg.
1 MJ object = 840 K, i.e. T dwarf, with K~19
~1 hr at R~400 with GMT

Weinberger - 6/14/2010 (Knapp et al. 2004)

 Astrophysics of Young Stars

A wide range of
luminosities and
gravities (and
therefore ages)

log g
appear for stars of all
types

Log (Teff)
(Doppmann et al. 2005)

Weinberger - 6/14/2010 Keck 0.3-2 hr /source a R~18,000

 Stellar Magnetic Fields
Disk evolution is supposedly magnetically driven
Only a handful of stars have directly measured fields

(Johns-Krull et al. 2009)

Measure Zeeman splitting (or broadening) of lines such as Ti I.

Weinberger - 6/14/2010
 Direct Observations of Circumstellar
Disks and origins of the diversity of
planetary systems
Disk Spectroscopy
Direct measurement of gas content and
temperature
High spectral resolution proxy for spatial
resolution (gas close to the star moves fast)
High spatial resolution to resolve the disk directly
(Spectroastrometry)
Disk Imaging
Direct measurement of structure
Composition from low-resolution spectroscopy of
emitted and scattered light
Weinberger - 6/14/2010
 Origin of Isotope Ratios

(R. Smith et al. 2009)

CO self-shielding: Lyons & Young (2005) suggested
that irradiation of our young disk generated our
18O/17O/16O ratios

Need O to be incorporated into water

Weinberger - 6/14/2010
 Where is ice line / where is the water?

Giant planets may

form more efficiently
outside the ice-line
Water-rich
planetesimals from
outside the ice-line
may deliver water to
dry inner planets

Salyk et al. 2008, ApJL

Weinberger - 6/14/2010 NIRSPEC, R~25,000
 What are gas densities in planet region?
Spectroastrometry
Analogous to centroiding to S/N=280
0.01 pixel
Find gas within 1/100 of a
spatial resolution element
(~0.3 mas for VLT, 0.1 mas
for GMT)
Requires S/N>100 on
continuum and resolving line
kinematically
Need aperture for low line
flux sources: detections are
10-16 - 10-17 W/m2
-30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30
Need excellent calibration in Velocity [km/s]
high continuum/line sources

Pontoppidan et al. 2008, ApJ, 684, 1323

Weinberger - 6/14/2010 VLT CRIRES+AO, Tint=32 min, R~100K
 HD 141569A

Disk is transitional Effect of

Contains gas
Companions?

Scattered Light
Large extent (400 AU)
Red visible near-IR color

Mid-IR Emission
Compact extent
PAHs

Star: A0, 16.5 L, 5 Myr old

(Weinberger et al. in prep)

Weinberger - 6/14/2010
 Spatially resolved disk kinematics
When do planets form?
When does gas in inner disk
disappear?
AO allows disk rotation
curves
Combined constraint of
kinematics and size
Consider the relevant
scales
GMT DL at 5 m = 0.04
Closest sites of ongoing
star formation - 150 pc;
GMT probes 6 AU (about
where Jupiter formed) Goto et al. 2006, ApJ, 652, 758
Subaru IRCS+AO, Tint=20 min, R~20K
Weinberger - 6/14/2010
 Spatially Resolved Spectra of Emission

Central Disk Spectrum

24 AU (0.24)

Terrestrial O3
(Rainbow step every 24 AU)
168 AU (1.68)
192 AU (1.92 AU) - Backgd

~1.5 hr at Keck

Weinberger - 6/14/2010 Weinberger et al. in prep

 Where are the silicates?
Hidden under carbon? This explains red color
too.

PAH+Amorphous PAH+Silicate
Carbon+BB

Weinberger - 6/14/2010 Weinberger et al. in prep

 Imaging Ices
Imaging of scattering from water ice in disks

HD 142527

mJy/sq.arcsec

Honda et al. 2009)

(Inoue et al. 2008)
Weinberger - 6/14/2010
 Watchng planet formation
10 mas 30 mas
If planets form by
gravitational instability
(Boss 1997), spiral
arms in disk may be 335 yr
observable in
scattered light.

Need high contrast in

near-infrared: 10-7 to
339 yr
10-9

346 yr
Weinberger - 6/14/2010 (Jang-Condell & Boss 2007)
 Observing planets in disks

It should be
possible to
detect planets
forming in the
outer parts of
classical T
Tauri star
disks

(Jang-Condell & Kuchner 2010)

Weinberger - 6/14/2010
 Planet Spectroscopy

GMTIFS offset to planet location. Use

spatial information to correct for scattered
light at each wavelength. Preferable to long
slit.

McElwain et al. 2008

Weinberger - 6/14/2010
Keck, OSIRIS
 Spectra of Young Exosolar Planets

Fomalhaut planet
appears
dominated by a
scattered light
disk. Could learn
about both.

Tiger

(Kalas et al. 2008)

Weinberger - 6/14/2010
 Detecting Planets in Debris Disks

Figure Credit: Chris Stark (U MD)

Weinberger - 6/14/2010
 Uses of 1st Generation Instruments for
star and planet formation studies

GMTNIRS - Probing stellar astrophysics, disk kinematics and composition

Tiger / ExAOCam - Imaging disks and planets in disks, composition

GMTIFS - Imaging young planets, disks

GMTNIRS / GMACS - Finding brown dwarfs in star forming regions
GCLEF - Debris disk gas, kinematics

GMT will enable many creative projects not envisioned yet

and like each generation of large telescope, enable
qualitative leaps in measurement ability.

Weinberger - 6/14/2010