Dr. Luca Matrà

Center for Astrophysics, Harvard-Smithsonian, USA

Exocometary Science

Abstract: Exocomets are icy bodies in extrasolar planetary systems, detected through the gas and dust they release as they collide and grind down within their natal belts, or as they venture into the inner regions of their planetary systems. Most detections are in relatively young, 10 to a few 100 Myr-old systems that are undergoing the final stages of terrestrial planet formation. This opens the exciting possibility to study exocomets at the epoch of volatile delivery to the inner regions of planetary systems. In this talk, I will present the different lines of evidence for exocomets from UV to mm wavelengths. I will then focus on mm observations of belts of exocomets, showing how gas detections give us access to exocometary compositions, and how dust observations enable us to study their dynamics and origin in young protoplanetary disks.