Dust Growth in Star- and Planet-Forming Environments

Conférence du 22 au 25 juillet 2013 - Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Heidelberg, Germany

With the detection of exo-planets, planet and star formation has emerged as an exciting, competitive, and quickly evolving field at the forefront of current astrophysical research. Since the planet formation is closely related to the star formation process via an accretion disk feeding the young stellar object, research focuses on the circumstellar disks, their formation and evolution, and the formation of larger bodies inside the disk as building blocks for planets.

A key role both in the star formation process and the formation of planets is played by the small dust particles mixed in the gas of the molecular cloud core where the star is forming. The grains are important tracers of the dense regions where the star formation starts, and contribute to the charging, chemistry, and cooling of the gas. But most importantly their growth begins the process of assembling building blocks of planets in the accretion disk of the young star.

The growth process is largely unexplored as dense cores as well as the midplane of accretion disks are shielded from our view at many wavelengths. The meeting brings together experts investigating grain growth in the thin interstellar medium, molecular cloud cores and accretion disks by means of observational studies, laboratory experiments, and computer experiments and simulations.

DG13 is organized by Jürgen Steinacker, Jürgen Blum, and Gwendolyn Meeus.

More information on the meeting webpage.