DESTINYS
The Disk Evolution Study Through Imaging of Nearby Young Stars is an ESO large program of which I am the principal investigator. The program started in the second half of 2019 and will target 85 T Tauri stars in all nearby (within 200 pc) star forming regions. Observations are carried out with the extreme adaptive optics instrument SPHERE at the ESO Very Large Telescope. The goals of the program are to detect the gas-rich circumstellar disks around the target stars for the first time in near-infrared scattered light, to link their appearance to key system parameters, such as the system age, and to search for embedded forming proto-planets. The near infrared appearance of disks depends a lot on their scale height and can vary significantly from what is seen in other wavelengths (for example, see the comparison of two systems imaged with SPHERE and ALMA on the left).
DESTINYS publications:
July 2020: A close low mass companion to ET Cha
February 2021: Late infall causing disk misalignment and dynamic structures in SU Aur
April 2022: A Panchromatic View of DO Tau's Complex Kilo-au Environment
September 2022: Scattered light detection of a possible disk wind in RY Tau
January 2023: Characterization of the young star T CrA and its circumstellar environment
February 2023: Diverse outcomes of binary-disk interactions
October 2023: HD 34700 A unveils an inner ring
March 2024: The SPHERE view of the Chamaeleon I, Taurus and Orion star forming regions
June 2024: PDS 111, an old T Tauri star with a young-looking disk
The DESTINYS team
DESTINYS is a huge team effort with team members covering different areas of expertise working in concert to exploit the data. Current team members are:
Myriam Benisty, Carsten Dominik, Carlo Manara, Matthew Kenworthy, Antonio Garufi, Christian Adam, Ruben Asensio-Torres, Til Birnstiel, Alex Bohn, Gael Chauvin, Jos de Boer, Stefano Facchini, Mario Flock, Raffaele Gratton, Thomas Henning, Michiel Hogerheijde, Jane Huang, Miriam Keppler, Wilhelm Kley, Maud Langlois, Eric Mamajek, Melissa McClure, Francois Menard, Gabriela Muro-Arena, Johan Olfsson, Paola Pinilla, Christoph Pinte, Christian Rab, Tobias Schmidt, Dennis Vaendel, Per-Gunnar Valegard, Gerrit van der Plas, Rob van Holstein, Zahed Wahhaj, Rens Waters, Jonathan Williams, Schuyler Wolff