MIRI MIDINFRARED DISK SURVEY
The study of protoplanetary disks has become increasingly important with the Kepler satellite finding that exoplanets are ubiquitous around stars in our galaxy and the discovery of enormous diversity in planetary system architectures and planet properties. High-resolution near-IR and ALMA images show strong evidence for ongoing planet formation in young disks. The JWST MIRI mid-INfrared Disk Survey (MINDS) aims to:
– investigate the chemical inventory in the terrestrial planet-forming zone,
– to follow the gas evolution into the disk dispersal stage,
– and to study the structure of protoplanetary and debris disks in the thermal mid-IR.
We will search for sign-posts of planet formation in thermal emission of micron-sized dust – information complementary to near-IR scattered light emission from small dust grains and emission from large dust in the submillimeter wavelength domain.
The sample
The survey comprises 57 targets: Herbig Ae stars, T Tauri stars, brown dwarfs and young debris disks.
We primarily obtain MIRI/MRS spectra with high S/N covering the complete wavelength range from 4.8 to 28.1 μm.