| Description |
Nearly all young stars harbour circumstellar disks, that serve as the reservoir for mass accretion onto the star, and later become the birthplace of planetary systems. After the disappearance of the gas component from the disk a dusty debris disk is formed that is believed to mark the location of the planetesimal belt as well. For outlining the evolution of such debris disks traditionally open clusters and field stars were studied, however we argue that the recently discovered young moving groups are more suitable objects for such analyses, due to their proximity and good coverage of the first 50 Myr period of the planetary system evolution. In this proposal we request 70/160 um Herschel/PACS photometric observations for so-far unobserved moving group members. These observations will provide a complete coverage of all known members within 80 pc of five nearby young moving groups (beta Pic Moving Group, Tucana-Horologium, Carina, Columba, and Argus), in the A to K spectral range. Based on the new observations we will identify new debris disks, characterize the disk population within individual moving groups, and study disk evolution by comparing the groups of different ages. The results will be used to verify predictions of the self-stirring model of the evolution of planetesimal disks. We will also compare the properties of debris disks in groups of the same age, looking for additional .environmental. parameters that affect disk structure over a whole moving group. Our study will be a significant contribution to the census of debris disks in young moving groups, increasing the number of observed sources by a factor of 1.5. Since Spitzer could perform only a limited census and the so-far approved Herschel programs added very few additional moving group obervations, our programme is expected to have a high legacy value. |
