Colloquium - Teresa Paneque’s “The vertical dimension of protoplanetary disks as a probe of initial conditions for planet formation”

Event details Date: Thursday, October 15, 2026 Time: 12:45 PM Location: Bryant Space Science Center Room 217 Type: Lecture / Workshop Tags: Seminar About this event Speaker: Teresa Paneque, University of Michigan Title: The vertical dimension of protoplanetary disks as a probe of initial conditions for planet formation Abstract: The disks of dust and gas where planets form are three-dimensional structures. Studying the vertical dimension through resolved observations of specific molecular tracers opens an under-studied view into the planet forming processes. This work presents empirical measurements of the vertical disk structure using multiple molecular tracers in a large sample of disks, including results from the DEC/O ALMA Large program. Using thermochemical models, the CO gas extent is used to determine total disk-mass and levels of carbon depletion in the planet-forming material. Then, by combining information on the thermal structure with detailed analysis of key optically thin molecules, such as CN and N2H+, we show that it is possible to recover vertically stratified turbulence values. These measurements allow us to probe ongoing physical instabilities in these disks, furthering our understanding of planet-forming conditions. 12:45 PM - 1:45 PM 217 Bryant Space Science Center Official event details: https://calendar.ufl.edu/clas_astronomy/event/57119-colloquium-teresa-paneques-the-vertical-dimension-of-p