Probing the Evolution of Dust Grains Through Detailed Modeling of Nearby YSOs
Abstract
Dust grains in the circumstellar disk, envelope, and outflow regions of Young Stellar Objects (YSOs) evolve from submicron size dust grains that permeate the interstellar medium to kilometer size protoplanets while the protostars they surround progress from collapsing prestellar cores to main sequence stars. We currently model high-resolution Hubble Space Telescope Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer imaging and polarimetry for a group of four (IRAS04302+2247, IRAS04016+2610, CoKu Tau/1, DG Tau B) Taurus-Auriga YSOs known to span the earliest stellar evolutionary phases (Class I - Class I/II). We use both well-developed 3-D radiative transfer codes and variable dust grain models to sensitively constrain not only the geometry and optical depth of the scattering medium, but also the grain size distribution. We simultaneously fit multi-wavelength (submicron to millimeter) spectral energy distributions (SEDs) for our objects to further constrain the model results. We present data and model YSO polarization, image morphology, and SEDs for varying dust grain models.
- Publication:
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American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #221
- Pub Date:
- January 2013
- Bibcode:
- 2013AAS...22125612R