With over 800 extrasolar planets now discovered, it is becoming increasingly important to understand the planet formation process. We have been conducting millimetre and centimetre wavelength observations of southern star forming regions with the Australia Telescope Compact Array to probe the cool, outer regions of protoplanetary disks and determine signatures of grain growth within these disks. These observations are complemented by sub-mm and IR studies.



T Tauri star WW Cha. Contours show the emission at 3 mm (left) and 1.6 cm (right) overplotted on Spitzer IRAC observations at 3.6 microns. The disk of WW Cha contains "pebbles" at least a centimetre in size, te second such disk detected. Credit: Bourke, Maddison, Lommen, Wright

Journal articles:

• Grain growth signatures in the protoplanetary discs of Chamaeleon and Lupus
  Ubach, Maddison, Wright, Wilner, Lommen, Koribalski (2012), MNRAS, 425, 3137
• Resolving structure in the HD100546 disk - signatures of planet building?
  Maddison, Wright, Lommen, Burton, Wilner, Bourke (2010), Highlights of Astronomy, 15, 741
• Grain growth across protoplanetary discs: 10 micron silicate feature versus millimetre slope
  Lommen, van Dishoeck, Wright, Maddison et al. (2010), A&A, 515, A77
• Large grains in disks around young stars: ATCA observations of WW Cha, RU Lup, and CS Cha
  Lommen, Maddison, Wright, van Dishoeck, Wilner, Bourke (2009), A&A, 495, 869
• Investigating Grain Growth in Disks Around Southern T Tauri Stars and Millimetre Wavelengths
  Lommen, Wright, Maddison, et al. (2007), A&A, 462, 211
• Investigating grain growth in southern protoplanetary disks
  Maddison et al. (2006), ATNF News, Issue No. 59

Last updated: Sunday, 09-Feb-2014 17:38:00 AEDT
smaddison @ swin.edu.au
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