we want to study the infrared emission from the circumstellar discs of young stars that are thought to be slightly older than the herbig ae/be stars that still occur in star-forming regions, and younger than main-sequence stars, such as beta pictoris, for which faint circumstellar discs have been found by iras. our main scientific goal is the study of the evolution of these circumstellar disks, an evolution which may be dominated by planet formation. a hint for the formation of large bodies around our program stars is the conspicuous dip at 10 micron in the energy distributions of several of them. iso will provide us with accurate energy distributions and with a variety of emission features from circumstellar dust grains. from these observations, we hope to obtain the geometrical extent and density distribution of the circumstellar grains as well as the grain size and chemical composition. comparison with data for younger and older objects will learn us how these parameters evolve with time. this proposal is an extension of a sws central project. it includes some recently identified objects as well as some hotter and thus more massive stars.
Instrument
SWS01
Temporal Coverage
1996-08-19T08:12:42Z/1996-10-05T04:25:28Z
Version
1.0
Mission Description
The Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) was the world's first true orbiting infrared observatory. Equipped with four highly-sophisticated and versatile scientific instruments, it was launched by Ariane in November 1995 and provided astronomers world-wide with a facility of unprecedented sensitivity and capabilities for a detailed exploration of the Universe at infrared wavelengths.
