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J. Najita (NOAO)
The HST Treasury survey of the Orion Nebula Cluster is expected to lend new insights into our understanding of the evolution of circumstellar disks, the presumed sites of planet formation, and the origin of winds from young stars. By comparing the UV excesses from the survey, which are a surrogate probe of the gas content of inner disks, with the IR excesses for the same sources (e.g., measured with Spitzer), it will be possible to study the relative dissipation timescales for the dust and gas components of inner disks. By comparing the extinction to the sources in the cluster, as measured by the survey, with the line-of-sight hydrogen column densities toward the same sources (e.g., as measured by Chandra survey COUP), we should be able to constrain the dust-to-gas ratio in the wind. Winds with low dust content are expected to be characteristic of X-winds launched from the inner disk edge, while disk winds, launched further out in the disk, are expected to be dustier. We discuss the ability of the HST + Chandra + Spitzer data sets to address these issues.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 37 #4
© 2005. The American Astronomical Soceity.