Weissman Lecture with Dr. Ewine van Dishoeck from Leiden University at 11:00am

Join us for our annual Weissman Lecture with Dr. Ewine van Dishoeck from Leiden University. Please see the abstract of her seminar below:

Understanding how stars and planets are built requires observations at long wavelengths in order to penetrate their dusty natal clouds.  The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST, or Webb) is the new flagship mission from NASA, with participation by ESA and CSA. Webb is orders of magnitude more sensitive than previous missions and has subarcsec resolution in the infrared.  Webb is therefore eminently suited to study the physical and chemical structure of embedded protostars and disks. In addition to jets and outflows, rich ice spectra are seen in the cold outer envelopes of protostars hinting at the presence of complex molecules in ices. In mature disks around T Tauri stars and brown dwarfs, many lines from gaseous CO, H2O, CO2, C2H2 and HCN are found, but also surprising new molecules are detected. Together they point to a rich chemistry with a varying composition and C/O ratio that may be linked to stellar mass and to the physical structure of the inner regions of these disks. Results from the first year of observations of the JOYS+ and MINDS programs will be presented.

To learn more about the history of the Weissman lectures, please click here.