The Chemistry of Planet Formation: A JWST-ALMA Survey of 4 Planet-Forming Disks
Abstract
Planets form and obtain their volatile inventories in disks around young stars. ALMA has recently completed a large program on the chemistry of 5 such disks at spatial resolutions of 10-15 au. The gas structure and chemical composition of their outer disk regions (>10 au) have been characterized in exquisite detail, revealing an impressive chemical and morphological diversity. We propose to use MIRI to obtain the complementary chemical composition of the inner 10 au of 4/5 of these disks (the 5th is part of a GTO program). The resulting data set will provide a complete chemical inventory from the small terrestrial planet-forming scales to the outer disk regions where e.g. comets may assemble. We will use the combined JWST-ALMA data set to retrieve the radial column density profiles of the main carriers of volatile C and O, of probes of the C/N/O/S gas-phase elemental ratios, and of key organic molecules across all planet-forming radii. This legacy data set will enable the best constraints to date on the composition of planet forming material at different disk radii, and on the dynamical and chemical links between different disk regions.
- Publication:
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JWST Proposal. Cycle 1
- Pub Date:
- March 2021
- Bibcode:
- 2021jwst.prop.2025O