# From clouds to protoplanetary disks: the astrochemical link

4-8 October 2015
Hans Harnack Haus
Europe/Berlin timezone
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Poster session

# Observational studies of pre-stellar cores and dust evolution just before star formation

## Speakers

• Mrs. Ana CHACON-TANARRO

## Content

In dense and cold molecular clouds dust grains are surrounded by thick icy mantles. It is however not clear if dust growth and coagulation take place before star formation begins. This is an important issue, as the presence of large grains may affect the chemical structure of dense cloud cores, including the dynamically important ionisation fraction, and the future evolution of solids in protoplanetary disks. We search for the presence of large dust grains using multi-wavelength dust continuum emission observations of pre-stellar cores and determining the observable properties, as the opacity and the spectral index. To reach these goals, the gas density and temperature profiles will be derived from millimeter-continuum and NH$_{3}$ high resolution data (VLA and GBT) for each target. These results will be compared with dust coagulation and chemical model predictions to gain a better understanding of the dust size distribution just before a protostar is born.