Paper: astro-ph/0511589
Date: Sat, 19 Nov 2005 01:04:35 GMT (72kb)

Title: Submillimeter studies of circumstellar disks in Taurus and Orion

Authors: Jonathan P. Williams and Sean M. Andrews (IfA/Hawaii)

Comments: Conference proceedings for "Revealing the Molecular Universe: One
Telescope is Never Enough"; informal writeup of recently published work for a
meeting celebrating the career of Jack Welch
\\
We highlight two recent studies of circumstellar disks in the Taurus and
Orion star forming regions. Using the JCMT and CSO, we measure disk fluxes in
Taurus over a wide range of submillimeter wavelengths and determine the
frequency dependence of the dust opacity. We find clear evidence for a
systematic change in its behavior with time, most readily explained by grain
growth. Using the SMA, we observed the protoplanetary disks (proplyds) in the
Orion Trapezium cluster. The combination of high resolution, high frequency,
and high sensitivity that this instrument provides made it possible to resolve
disks from one another, distinguish their emission from background cloud
material and surrounding ionized gas, and to detect thermal dust emission. This
allowed us to make the first mass measurements of the proplyds and to assess
their viability for planet formation.

\\ ( http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0511589 , 72kb)