Project Overview
Accretion Processes in Young Low Mass Stars, Brown Dwarfs, and Planetary Mass Objects
Department(s)
Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
Stars and planets grow by collecting material from circumstellar disks or what are often referred to as protoplanetary disks. The process of gaining mass is generically referred to as accretion. Understanding the physical mechanisms of accretion in low mass stars, brown dwarfs, and planets is essential to developing a complete model of how stars and planets form and how protoplanetary disks evolve into planetary systems. This project seeks to better understand these accretion processes at the lowest end of the mass spectrum using near-infared spectroscopic observations of these objects. The near-infrared included numberous atomic emission features associated with shock-heated material accreting onto these forming objects. Much can be learned from measuring the relative brightnesses of these lines and comparing them to predicted values. Students involved in this project will have the opportunity to collect, reduce, and analyze spectra of these low mass objects and work towards characterizing the accretion processes for these low mass objects.
Student Qualifications
Completed PHYS 131 and PHYS 232 by this summer. ASTR 210 preferred, but not required. Familiarity with Python programming would be a bonus.
Number of Student Researchers
2 students
Project Length
8 weeks