Accretion and the formation of very low mass objects
PI:
Gregory Herczeg
Co-I(s):
Brendan Bowler, Adam Kraus, Michael Ireland, Lynne Hillenbrand, Sean Andrews, Zhaohuan Zhu, Zhen Guo
Abstract
The formation of planetary mass objects at 50-300 AU separations from their host stars is uncertain. Several campaigns are exploiting the low contrast between the star and an accreting planet in a narrow region around H-alpha to find and characterize these systems. However, interpreting the H-alpha emission in terms of accretion rates and therefore formation relies on highly uncertain conversion factors and comparisons to field objects of the same mass. In this proposal, we request GMOS-N blue+red spectra of very low mass brown dwarfs and free-floating planets (10-30 MJ) to establish a control group for accretion rates of free floating objects for comparison to planetary mass companions, to test whether a break exists in object mass-accretion rate correlations, and to quantify conversions required to interpreting line emission from high contrast imaging.