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ReportsThe Onset of Planet Formation in Brown Dwarf Disks
The onset of planet formation in protoplanetary disks is marked by the growth and crystallization of sub–micrometer-sized dust grains accompanied by dust settling toward the disk mid-plane. Here, we present infrared spectra of disks around brown dwarfs and brown dwarf candidates. We show that all three processes occur in such cool disks in a way similar or identical to that in disks around low- and intermediate-mass stars. These results indicate that the onset of planet formation extends to disks around brown dwarfs, suggesting that planet formation is a robust process occurring in most young circumstellar disks.
1 Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.
2 NASA Astrobiology Institute, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035, USA. 3 Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Königstuhl 17, Heidelberg, D-69117, Germany. 4 Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Instituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Largo E. Fermi 5, I-50125 Firenze, Italy. * These authors contributed equally to this work.
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To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)
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