[Ne II] and X-ray emission from ρ Ophiuchi young stellar objects

Circumstellar disks are mostly made of gas. Constraining the spatial and thermal structure of the gas, and its time evolution, is crucial to understand the star- and planet-formation processes. Models predict that the gas is affected by UV and X-ray radiation from the central young stellar object (YSO), but many uncertainties remain, e.g. whether the EUV emission actually reaches the disk or is absorbed by disk winds. The infrared [Ne II] and [Ne III] fine structure lines at 12.81μm and 15.55μm have been theoretically predicted to trace the circumstellar disk gas subject to X-ray heating and ionization.