RESEARCH INTERESTS
Most stars form on a timescale of less than 10 million years, after gas and dust dense cores within molecular clouds collapse and flatten to form circumstellar disks that surround the central, accreting stars. It is within these "protoplanetary" disks where planets grow by trapping the surrounding material. However, the devil is in the detail. Some questions driving my research are listed below. My contributions aiming to answer them by combining different observational strategies and physical models can be consulted in my complete list of publications according to NASA/ADS:
- How do stars and planets form?
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- Do all stars form by accreting the circumstellar material in the same way?
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- Which are the indirect observational signatures of ongoing planet formation within protoplanetary disks?
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- Which observational techniques are best suited to actually detect forming planets?
Example of different structures within the protoplanetary disk surrounding HD 100546, a young star potentially hosting forming planets. (Top, from Mendigutía et al. 2015b) Inner dust rim and velocity surfaces of the gaseous, innermost disc discovered around HD 100546, consistent with our spectro-interferometric observations with AMBER/VLTI. North is on the top and east is on the left. The NE part is further from us and the SW is closer. (Bottom, adapted from Mendigutía et al. 2017b) SPHERE/VLT polarimetric image of HD 100546. The left panel shows the outer disk and a possible radial inflow/outflow through the disk cavity. The position of the central star and the candidate planet "c" is indicated with a cross and a circle, respectively. The size of Pluto's orbit around the Sun is indicated for comparison. The right panel focuses on the cavity, highlighting the possible radial inflow/outflow. The inner disk size resolved in the top panel (similar to the orbit of Mars) is indicated with a dotted line.
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