Physics & Astronomy Kevin Flaherty, Williams College: "The Dynamic Planet Forming Environment"

Planets are created during the first few million years after a stars birth, within flattened disks of gas and dust that encircle the central star. The kinematics of the gas and dust within these systems plays an important role in the formation and early evolution of planets, through processes ranging from the collisional growth of sub-micron grains to the radial migration of gas giant planets. In this talk I will discuss our recent observations focused on quantifying the dynamics of the planet formation environment. I will report on our efforts to constrain the turbulent motion of the gas using CO emission from protoplanetary disks, and the finding that weak turbulence is common, although not universal. I will also discuss time-series observations of mid-infrared emission, sensitive to dust structures in the inner disk. Finally I will present observations of an unusual disk around a low-mass star that shows hallmarks of both first and second-generation material.