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“Protoplanetary Disk Evolution and Clearing” Prof. Nuria Calvet University of Michigan |
| The understanding of the structure and evolution of protoplanetary disks has increased immensely in the last few years with the wealth of new information coming from space missions. I will present recent results clearly indicating evolution of the gas and dust components in those disks. Observations seem to indicate that disks evolve by decreasing their mass accretion rate onto the star, while dust growths and settles toward the midplane. However, this trend is broken at some point, as the fraction of objects without disks in a given population increases with time. In this context, I will talk about the transition disks, which show significant amounts of inner disk clearing, review the models presented so far to explain them. I will suggest different scenarios on how they fit into the overall evolutionary picture of disks and why they may be the signposts of the onset of planet formation. |