| Grant number: | 10/19810-4 |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral |
| Start date: | September 01, 2011 |
| End date: | June 30, 2014 |
| Field of knowledge: | Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Astronomy - Stellar Astrophysics |
| Principal Investigator: | Jorge Luis Melendez Moreno |
| Grantee: | TalaWanda Rose Monroe |
| Host Institution: | Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas (IAG). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil |
Abstract This project has the goal of bringing TalaWanda R. Monroe to Brazil to study the relation between planet formation and chemical abundances, under supervision of Prof. Jorge Meléndez at the Astronomy Department of the University of São Paulo. T. Monroe will perform an ambitious study of young stars in open clusters with detected debris disks, and of solar twins observed at very high resolution and high S/N, to look for signatures of planet formation. The project has two parts: A) Chemical analysis of solar type stars in young clusters with debris disks. Such a study is urgently needed to understand the link between the presence of debris disks in young open clusters and metallicity. T. Monroe has already detected debris disks in young open clusters using the Spitzer Space Telescope, and she is acquiring a large dataset of spectroscopic observations for those clusters. The young clusters cover a range of ages, so it will be possible to study the evolution of debris disks. This is potentially important to understand the transition from proto-planetary disks to mature planetary systems. B) Planet signatures in solar twins. Recently, we have shown that the Sun has an anomalous chemical composition, probably due to the formation of terrestrial planets. That ground-breaking result was obtained using high resolution (R = 60,000) and high S/N spectra obtained at the 6.5m Magellan telescope. Now we will study the planet signatures using spectra of solar twins acquired at even better resolution (R ~ 100,000) at the VLT and Keck telescopes. This work will be crucial for the quest of other Earths, and to characterise the fraction of solar type stars that may host rocky planets. A sub-sample is being searched for giant planets by other groups, making possible to look also for correlations with planet properties. We will also test a recent prediction of stellar models which include episodic accretion, linking lithium depletion and chemical anomalies. (AU) | |
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