Periodic Reporting for period 3 - Origins (From Planet-Forming Disks to Giant Planets)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2022-10-01 al 2024-03-31
Astronomers have discovered more than 5000 exoplanets orbiting other stars. They show an enormous diversity in their orbital parameters, and their characteristic masses and radii. This diversity is an imprint of the planet formation process occuring in gas-dust disks around young stars. In order to place the solar system in context and to understand the conditions forthe occurence of life on other planets, we are investigating how planet formation proceeds, what the properties of their birthplaces are and how organic and pre-biotic molecules can form under the conditions of interstellar space. The project combines observations with high spatial resolution, using the technique of adaptive optics and interferometry in the infrared and at millimeter wavelengths, laboratory experiments on molecular ices and numerical simulations to better understand the physical and chemical processes in disks and planetary atmospheres.
Our investigations revealed that the radial distribution of planetary embryos and the mass in solid material are the main regulating factors in determing the properties of a planet population. However, the precise measurement of the disk mass is notoriously difficult. We have a provided a new way independent of the uncertain assumption on gas-dust ratios and dust opacities and applying dust migration physics. Based on infrared surveys with adaptive-optics assisted instruments we could establish the demographics of planets and could provide mass limits for young planets in disks with inner large gaps and structures. We continued to characterize the exciting young planetary system PDS 70 and found that the two planets are close to a resonance, indicating migration in the disk. In addition, we found the first solid evidence for the presence of a circumplanetary disks around the young exoplanet PDS 70 c. As part of the Carmenes exoplanet surveys, we are detecting low-mass planets around M-type stars. In addition, we characterized successfully the atmosphere composition of exoplanets with high-resolutions spectroscopy. The analysis of exoplanet atmopsheres, including retrieval techniques, allows us to put constraints on the planet formation process.
In our Origins of Life Lab we studied the formation of organice molecules under the low-temperature conditions of molecular clouds and the outer regions of protoplanetary disks. Important results are the discovery of a phase transition in CO ice and the detection of a completely new pathway for the formation of peptides. We have prepared our disk spectroscopy program for JWST and are expecting first results in summer.
In our Origins of Life Lab we studied the formation of organice molecules under the low-temperature conditions of molecular clouds and the outer regions of protoplanetary disks. Important results are the discovery of a phase transition in CO ice and the detection of a completely new pathway for the formation of peptides. We have prepared our disk spectroscopy program for JWST and are expecting first results in summer.
A major step will be the analysis of the JWST infrared spectra coming from our guaranteed time and open time projects. I assembled a large and diverse European group including PhD students and postdocs. In addition, we obtained a comprehensive dataset from the NOEMA millimetre interferometer which is presently under investigation and will allow us to characterize the molecular content of protoplanetary disks in the Taurus star-forming region. In the Origins of Life Laboratory, we will be able to complete our new innovative experiment which will allow to trace the formation of complex organic molecules with a combination of infrared spectroscopy and very sensitive mass spectroscopy.