The structure and evolution of protoplanetary disks: Spitzer IRS survey of young stars in the nearby star forming clouds of Taurus-Auriga, Chamaeleon I and Ophiuchus.
Planetary systems are believed to be formed out of the circumstellar
disks surrounding young stars. We have obtained 5- 40 micron
mid-infared spectra of some 300 protoplanetary disks around young
solar-mass stars in the nearby star forming regions of Taurus-Auriga,
Chamaeleon I and Ophiuchus with the Infrared Spectrograph (IRS)
onboard the Spitzer telescope. The shape of the mid-infrared continuum
and the dust emission features seen in the IRS spectra of such a large
sample allow us to study the structure of protoplanetary disks and
disk evolution markers and planet formation processes such as dust
grain growth, sedimentation and crystallization in unprecedented
detail. I will present our analysis and discuss our main results.
