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Our Solar System was formed from a cloud of gas and dust. Most of the dust mass is contained in amorphous silicates1, yet crystalline silicates are abundant throughout the Solar System, reflecting the thermal and chemical alteration of solids during planet formation. (Even primitive bodies such as comets contain crystalline silicates2.) Little...
We present the first long baseline mid-infrared interferometric observations of the circumstellar disks surrounding Herbig Ae/Be stars. The observations were obtained using the mid-infrared interferometric instrument MIDI at the EuropeanSouthern Observatory (ESO) Very Large Telescope Interferometer VLTI on Cerro Paranal. The 102 m baseline...
Aims: We studied the accretion disk of the archetypal eruptive young star FU Orionis with the use of mid-infrared interferometry, which enabled us to resolve the innermost regions of the disk down to a spatial resolution of 3 milliarcseconds (mas) in the L band, that is, within 1 au of the protostar. Methods: We used the interferometric...
Context. Active galactic nuclei play a key role in the evolution of galaxies, but their inner workings and physical connection to the host are poorly understood due to a lack of angular resolution. Infrared interferometry makes it possible to resolve the circumnuclear dust in the nearby Seyfert 2 galaxy, the Circinus Galaxy. Previous...
Context. Rocky planets form by the concentration of solid particles in the inner few au regions of planet-forming disks. Their chemical composition reflects the materials in the disk available in the solid phase at the time the planets were forming. Studying the dust before it gets incorporated in planets provides a valuable diagnostic for the...