Research Interests - SSI Center for Extrasolar Planetary Systems

Michael L. Sitko
SSI Research Scientist and Professor, Department of Physics, University of Cincinnati

Dr. Michael (Mike) Sitko's research interests center around the nature of interstellar, circumstellar, and interplanetary dust grains, and the role they play in the formation of planetary systems. His current work is focused primarily on the nature of "transitional" and "pre-transitional" disks. These objects are young stellar disks with zones that are cleared of material, and where the clearing is most likely due to the presence of planetary-mass objects. Recent targets of investigation include the "gapped" disks of V1247 Ori and SAO 206462, which were investigated using a combination of interferometry, coronagraphy, and spectrophotometry. The "gaps" in these systems seem to contain material with spiral patters indicative of planet-disk interactions. In 2013 Mike became a member of the Strategic Exploration of Exoplanets and Disks with Subaru (SEEDS) consortium. SEEDS has been obtaining some of the best high spatial resolution images of young stellar disks in recent years.

link to Mike's web page
see also the UC department of Physics faculty page