ALMA digs deeper into the mystery of planet formation

Date:
June 28, 2023
Source:
National Institutes of Natural Sciences
Summary:
An international research team has observed disks around
19 protostars with a very high resolution to search for the
earliest signs of planet formation. This survey was motivated by
the recent findings that planet formation may be well-underway in
the more-evolved proto-planetary disks, but until now there had
been no systematic study to search for signs of planet formation
in younger protostellar systems.


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FULL STORY ==========================================================================
An international research team used the Atacama Large
Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to observe disks around 19
protostars with a very high resolution to search for the earliest signs
of planet formation. This survey was motivated by the recent findings that planet formation may be well-underway in the more- evolved proto-planetary disks, but until now there had been no systematic study to search for
signs of planet formation in younger protostellar systems.

Planets form in a disk around a newborn star. These 'proto-planetary'
disks only last a few million years, meaning that a forming planetary
system only has this amount of time to finish its formation. However, it
is still not clear just how rapidly planet formation begins within these
disks. Recent ALMA observations have revealed that many proto-planetary
disks have substructures such as gaps and rings, indicating that planets
are already forming from the disk. "These previous results motivated us
to examine even younger disks around protostars to answer the question,
at what stage of star formation do planet forms," says Nagayoshi Ohashi at Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA, Taiwan),
who led the team.

The team observed disks around 19 protostars located within about
650 light- years from the Earth. This is the first systematic study
to investigate the detailed structure of disks around a large sample
of protostars with high angular resolution. The observations clearly
show that the disks around protostars are different from more-evolved proto-planetary disks. Among the 19 protostars, rings, and gaps,
which are signs of planet formation, were observed only in a few
disks. Moreover, the ring structures are less distinct than those seen
in the proto-planetary disks.

"We did not expect to see such clear differences between disks around protostars and more-evolved disks," says Ohashi. John Tobin, a Co-PI of
the program at the National Radio Astronomical Observatory (USA) adds
"Our results suggest that disks around protostars are not fully ready
for planet formation.

We believe that the actual formation of the planetary system progresses
rapidly in the 100,000 years to 1,000,000 years after star formation
begins."
* RELATED_TOPICS
o Space_&_Time
# Extrasolar_Planets # Solar_System # Stars # Galaxies #
Kuiper_Belt # Eris_(Xena) # Astronomy # Jupiter
* RELATED_TERMS
o Eris_(dwarf_planet) o Venus o Phoenix_(spacecraft) o
Extrasolar_planet o Uranus o Definition_of_planet o Neptune
o Mercury_(planet)

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
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========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Nagayoshi Ohashi, John J. Tobin, Jes K. Jo/rgensen, Shigehisa
Takakuwa,
Patrick Sheehan, Yuri Aikawa, Zhi-Yun Li, Leslie W. Looney,
Jonathan P.

Williams, Yusuke Aso, Rajeeb Sharma, Jinshi Sai (Insa Choi),
Yoshihide Yamato, Jeong-Eun Lee, Kengo Tomida, Hsi-Wei Yen, Frankie
J. Encalada, Christian Flores, Sacha Gavino, Miyu Kido, Ilseung
Han, Zhe-Yu Daniel Lin, Suchitra Narayanan, Nguyen Thi Phuong,
Alejandro Santamari'a- Miranda, Travis J. Thieme, Merel L. R. van
't Hoff, Itziar de Gregorio- Monsalvo, Patrick M. Koch, Woojin
Kwon, Shih-Ping Lai, Chang Won Lee, Adele Plunkett, Kazuya Saigo,
Shingo Hirano, Ka Ho Lam, Shoji Mori. Early Planet Formation in
Embedded Disks (eDisk). I. Overview of the Program and First
Results. The Astrophysical Journal, 2023; 951 (1): 8 DOI:
10.3847/1538-4357/acd384 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/06/230628130448.htm

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