Dr. Bergin, along with a postodoctoral fellow and students, will use chemistry as a tool to probe the physics of star and planet formation. Young stars are usually surrounded by disks of material that contribute mass to the stars through the process of accretion. These disks also contain the material out of which planets are formed. The main goals of the effort are (1) to explore carbon-grain destruction in the inner regions of circumstellar disks; (2) to characterize cosmic-ray penetration in these disks; (3) to identify ways of detecting exoplanets through molecular emission; and (4) to determine the time scales for episodic accretion in young stellar objects.
Results from this project will be incorporated into the curriculum at the University of Michigan, and young researchers will be trained in the science of molecular astrophysics. This project is also interdisciplinary in nature, with aspects of chemistry, physics, astrophysics, and astrobiology.
