Poster Abstracts

Name/Affiliation:  Ettore Flaccomio (INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo)

Title:  X-ray activity and proto-planetary disks - new insights from the Coordinated Synoptic Investigation of NGC2264 (CSI NGC2264)

Abstract:
The evolution of proto-planetary disks is affected by the central protostars through irradiation and magnetic interactions. X-ray/UV coronal and accretion-shock emission may drive gas ionization and heating and, consequently, photo-evaporation and disk dispersal. The magnetosphere connecting the star and inner disk mediates mass and angular momentum exchanges and modifies the disk structure. These processes are coupled since the intensity of X-ray/UV irradiation depends the physical and geometrical characteristics of disks, as well as to those of stellar coronae and accretion shocks. Observational evidence of huge warps in the inner disks, due to the interaction of a tilted magnetosphere with the ionized disk gas, have recently been found. These still-unclear processes are highly dynamic and involve material emitting in different bands: the inner disk dust (mIR), the stellar photosphere (optical), accretion shocks (UV/X-rays), and coronae (X-rays). Observationally, multi-band, time-resolved studies are therefore needed. I will presents selected results form the Coordinated Synoptic Investigation of NGC2264 (CSI NGC2264), an unprecedented multi-wavelength month-long observing campaign of the NGC2264 star forming region. Three space telescopes (Spitzer, CoRoT and Chandra) were employed to simultaneously monitor a rich sample of ~3Myr old stars in in the mid-IR, optical and X-ray bands. This data is allowing an unprecedented characterization of the dynamics of the respective emission regions as well as of their interactions. I will investigate the relations among X-ray (coronal) and optical (photospheric)/mid-IR(disk) emission, on timescale from hours to ~1 month, with particular reference to the obscuration of coronal plasma by temporally varying disk structures.