9 December 2004

Speaker: Lori Allen (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)

Title: What Spitzer is teaching us about star formation and disk evolution

Abstract: This month marks the first year anniversary of science operations with the Spitzer Space Telescope, NASA's Great Observatory for infrared exploration. I will give an overview of Guaranteed Time observations including a survey of nearby young stellar clusters, large scale mapping of the Orion molecular cloud, and observations of 3-10 million year old stellar clusters designed to trace the evolution of protoplanetary disks. New results include observations of disks around very low mass stars and brown dwarfs, spatial distributions of young stars and protostars on multi-parsec scales, and evidence of dust evolution in the inner disks of 3-10 million year old stars. I will show how the interpretation of mid-infrared colors of young stars is aided by comparison with state-of-the-art models of accretion disks and protostellar envelopes (D'Alessio and Calvet). I will also give a brief update on the status of the Spitzer mission.

Video of the Presentation (Talks can be viewed with RealPlayer. Free download is available from www.real.com )

References for students: