Thursday, 19 August at 1.00pm @ JAC

  ABSTRACT: "In the last decade, it has been well established that many pre-main sequence stars are surrounded by disks with sizes and masses comparable to those of our own primitive solar system. While much attention has been paid to the analysis of continuum data, line observations can provide important complementary information on the physical structure and chemical composition of disks. High-J lines of CO and other simple gas-phase molecules (including deuterated species) have been obtained with the JCMT and OVRO to constrain the temperatures and densities, as well as the chemical abundances. The presence of abundant ices in the cold part of disks is suggested by recent data from VLT-ISAAC and the Spitzer Space Telescope. The results will be discussed in the context of models of flared and non-flared disks and their evolution from protostellar regions. The importance of new observational facilities, in particular ALMA, JWST and ELT's, will be emphasized."