Physics and Astronomy Calendar

Newly-commissioned long-baseline interferometers can scrutinize galactic (and extragalactic) objects with nano-radian angular resolution. This incredible resolution allows us a look into the inner accretion disks of young stellar objects (YSOs) in nearby star forming regions. The inner AU of these "protoplanetary" disks hosts a variety of important and fascinating phenomena: it is the site of magnetospheric accretion lifting material off the disk, the disk material here mediates the orbital migration of newly formed "Hot Jupiter" exoplanets, and, of course, terrestrial planet building occurs in the the inner AU. Here, I will give an overview of recent work in this field, results which have directly challenged existing paradigms of the inner accretion disk and the star-disk connection. Soon, we will have the capability to directly image the inner disk using the CHARA interferometer and I will show some exciting new results imaging the surfaces of rapid rotators and interacting binaries.