Program: GS-2006A-Q-71

We intend to use T-ReCS to investigate the dust mineralogy in the circumstellar disk around the Herbig AeBe star HD100546. The disk has been resolved in the mid-infrared and has been inferred to harbour a planet. Its mid-ir spectrum looks remarkably like that of solar system comets. By aligning the T-ReCS slit along the major axis of the disk we will spatially probe the relative populations of amorphous and crystalline silicates in the disk, as well as other components such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Such observations will aid in understanding the formation and eventual distribution of crystalline silicates in young circumstellar disks, and bear on the origin of such crystalline silicates in comets within our own solar system.