From Protostars to Planetary Systems : FUV Spectroscopy of YSOs, Protoplanetary Disks, and Extrasolar Giant Planets

• Published in: arXiv.org
• Main Authors: Scowen, Paul A, Jansen, Rolf, Beasley, Matthew, Desch, Steve, Fullerton, Alex, McCaughrean, Mark, Oey, Sally, Padgett, Debbie, Roberge, Aki, Smith, Nathan
• Format: Paper
• Language: English
• Published: Ithaca Cornell University Library, arXiv.org 13.04.2009
• Subjects: Apertures; Extrasolar planets; Galaxies; Interstellar matter; New technology; Planet formation; Planetary systems; Protoplanetary disks; Protoplanets; Protostars; Spectrum analysis; Star formation
• ISSN: 2331-8422

The last two decades have seen remarkable progress in our long-standing goal of determining the abundance and diversity of worlds in the Galaxy. Understanding of this subject involves tracing the path of interstellar material from dense cloud cores, to young stellar objects, protoplanetary disks, and finally extrasolar planets. Here we discuss the critical information provided on these objects by point-source far-ultraviolet spectroscopy with a large aperture, high resolution spectrograph of a large sample of unique protostellar and protoplanetary objects that will leverage our existing knowledge to lay out a path to new and powerful insight into the formation process. We lay out a systematic case of coordinated observations that will yield new knowledge about the process of assembly for both protostellar and protoplanetary systems - that addresses specific uncertainties in our current knowledge and takes advantage of potential new technologies to acquire the data needed.