EPoS
EPoS Contribution

Water: from cores to disks

Ewine vanDishoeck
Leiden Observatory / MPE, Leiden, TheNetherlands
Water is a key molecule in the physics and chemistry of star- and planet-forming regions. In the `Water in Star-forming Regions with Herschel' (WISH) Key Program, we have obtained a comprehensive set of water data toward a large sample of well-characterized protostars, covering a wide range of masses and luminosities --from the lowest to the highest mass protostars--, as well as evolutionary stages --from pre-stellar cores to disks. Lines of both ortho- and para-H$_2$O and their isotopologues, as well as chemically related hydrides, are observed with the HIFI and PACS instruments. The data elucidate the physical processes responsible for the warm gas, probe dynamical processes associated with forming stars and planets (outflow, infall, expansion), test basic chemical processes and reveal the chemical evolution of water and the oxygen-reservoir into planet-forming disks. In this talk a few recent WISH highlights will be presented. Special attention will be given to trends found across the sample, especially the similarity in profiles from low to high-mass protostars and the evolution of water from prestellar cores to disks. More details can be found at http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/WISH
Collaborators:
The WISH team
Key publication