Description du projet
Lever le voile sur les premières étapes de la formation des planètes
Les disques protoplanétaires, des disques denses formés de gaz et de poussière qui entourent les étoiles nouvellement formées, sont le lieu de naissance des planètes. Les processus exacts de formation et d’évolution des planètes demeurent toutefois insaisissables pour les scientifiques. Étant donné que les disques protoplanétaires évoluent et se dissipent rapidement, il est crucial d’observer les planètes en formation et d’étudier leurs interactions avec leur disque hôte. Le projet PROTOPLANETS, financé par l’UE, étudiera les premières étapes de la formation et de l’évolution des systèmes planétaires en exploitant des données de pointe d’observation des disques protoplanétaires, étalonnées grâce à des techniques avancées de traitement des données. L’objectif final du projet est de comprendre la diversité des systèmes exoplanétaires en reliant les propriétés des protoplanètes à celles du disque protoplanétaire.
Objectif
Recent observing campaigns have revealed a great diversity in exoplanetary systems whose origin is yet to be understood. How and when planets form, and how they evolve and interact with their birth environment, the protoplanetary disks, are major open questions. Protoplanetary disks evolve and dissipate rapidly while planets are forming, implying a direct feedback between the processes of planet formation and disk evolution. Observing protoplanets still in the early stages of formation and studying their imprints on the disk structure is therefore crucial.
PROTOPLANETS aims to establish a global observational picture of the early stages of planetary systems formation and evolution. My team and I will analyze cutting-edge observations on a large sample of protoplanetary disks, calibrated with novel data processing technics and modelled in the light of state-of-the-art simulations, to:
(1) search for giant protoplanets still embedded in disks;
(2) study the imprints of planet-disk interactions and their dependence on stellar/disk properties;
(3) reveal the impact of planets on the disk structure and dust evolution;
(4) determine the conditions for terrestrial planet formation in the inner disk regions.
The overall ambition of PROTOPLANETS is to understand the diversity of exoplanetary systems by linking the properties of protoplanets with those of the inner and outer disk regions.
The project builds on a novel methodology to detect giant protoplanets and at the same time, characterize the birth environment shaped by those planets. As demonstrated by our recent discovery of the first protoplanet imaged in a disk, the direct detection and characterization of protoplanets will be a major breakthrough, enabling probing of processes of planet formation that could only be addressed theoretically before. The properties of such forming planets, constrained by the proposed research, will offer key insights into the timescales, location and processes of planet formation.
Champ scientifique
Mots‑clés
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
ERC-COG - Consolidator GrantInstitution d’accueil
38058 Grenoble
France