The Formation and Evolution of Planetary Systems: Placing Our Solar System in Context with Spitzer

We provide an overview of the Spitzer Legacy Program ``Formation and Evolution of Planetary Systems" (FEPS) which was proposed in 2000, begun in 2001, and executed aboard the Spitzer Space Telescope between 2003 and 2006. This program exploits the sensitivity of Spitzer to carry out mid-infrare...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2007-01
Main Authors: Meyer, Michael R, Hillenbrand, Lynne A, Backman, Dana, Beckwith, Steve, Bouwman, Jeroen, Brooke, Tim, Carpenter, John, Cohen, Martin, Cortes, Stephanie, Crockett, Nathan, Gorti, Uma, Henning, Thomas, Hines, Dean, Hollenbach, David, Kim, Jinyoung Serena, Lunine, Jonathan, Malhotra, Renu, Mamajek, Eric, Morris, Pat, Najita, Joan, Moro-Martin, Amaya, Padgett, Deborah, Metchev, Stanimir, Pascucci, Ilaria, Rodmann, Jens, Schlingman, Wayne, Silverstone, Murray, Soderblom, David, Stauffer, John, Stobie, Elizabeth, Strom, Steve, Watson, Dan, Weidenschilling, Stuart, Wolf, Sebastian, Young, Erick
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accretion disks
Celestial bodies
Cosmic dust
Gas giant planets
Infrared spectra
Infrared spectrophotometers
Molecular gases
Planet formation
Planetary evolution
Planetary systems
Solar system
Solar system evolution
Space telescopes
Spectrophotometry
Stellar age
Websites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We provide an overview of the Spitzer Legacy Program ``Formation and Evolution of Planetary Systems" (FEPS) which was proposed in 2000, begun in 2001, and executed aboard the Spitzer Space Telescope between 2003 and 2006. This program exploits the sensitivity of Spitzer to carry out mid-infrared spectrophotometric observations of solar-type stars. With a sample of ~ 328 stars ranging in age from ~ 3 Myr to ~ 3 Gyr, we trace the evolution of circumstellar gas and dust from primordial planet-building stages in young circumstellar disks through to older collisionally generated debris disks. When completed, our program will help define the time scales over which terrestrial and gas giant planets are built, constrain the frequency of planetesimal collisions as a function of time, and establish the diversity of mature planetary architectures. In addition to the observational program, we have coordinated a concomitant theoretical effort aimed at understanding the dynamics of circumstellar dust with and without the effects of embedded planets, dust spectral energy distributions, and atomic and molecular gas line emission. Together with the observations, these efforts will provide astronomical context for understanding whether our Solar System - and its habitable planet - is a common or a rare circumstance. Additional information about the FEPS project can be found on the team website: feps.as.arizona.edu
ISSN:2331-8422