Collaborative Research: High Resolution Spectroscopy and Spectro-Astrometry of Warm Gas in Herbig Ae/Be Stars: A Search for Forming Gas Giant Planets

Clemson University, Clemson SC

Investigators

Abstract

This team will use ground-based telescopes and computer models to detect and characterize exoplanets in disks around other stars. The team will apply novel techniques to detect gas giant planets that are still in the process of forming. If successful, these results would allow us to connect the initial conditions of the planet-forming environment to the kinds of planets that form. Inherent curiosity about how our own planet came to be attracts students from all backgrounds into STEM disciplines. The students involved with this project will have the opportunity to carry out research at one of the frontiers of modern astrophysics by exploiting data available from state of the art observatories and computational modeling. Previous students involved in this group have applied their experiences to careers in K-12 education, industry, national defense, in addition to more traditional research careers. This project will also provide research-based learning opportunities for students in the South Carolina State University - Clemson University bridge program, actively broadening participation of underrepresented groups in astronomy. This program has three principal science goals. (1) Search for circumplanetary disks around companions orbiting Herbig Ae/Be stars: generate a uniform atlas of all archival high resolution M-band observations of Herbig Ae/Be, search for variable CO emission indicative of an orbiting companion, and obtain additional observations. (2) Search for dynamical markers of massive substellar companions. (3) Apply this group's thermochemical model to sources with observed OH and CO emission to test the hypothesis that OH primarily arises from the inner rim of circumstellar disks.