Searching for Rotating Disks in Young Protostellar Systems in Orion

Project Description

Stars are the building blocks of our Galaxy, and thus their formation has a direct influence on the evolution of our Galaxy. Moreover, the formation of low-mass stars like our Sun and their planets has direct implications for the formation of our Solar System and the origin of life. Although low-mass star formation is of fundamental importance, the detailed processes are still not yet fully understood.

Our ALMA project (ID: 2022.1.01437.S, PI: Somnath Dutta) was accepted and carried out to map jets in three young protostellar systems in Orion. In this summer student project, we will map the continuum emission from dust around the central protostars and search for accretion disks around them. We will also map the molecular line emission of HCO⁺ and SO to examine whether the disks are Keplerianly rotating, as expected in star formation theory.