Disks, young stars, and radio waves: the quest for forming planetary systems

TL;DR

This paper reviews the historical development and current state of research on protoplanetary disks around young stars, emphasizing radio observations and future prospects with advanced telescopes like EVLA and ALMA.

Contribution

It highlights the importance of radio wavelengths in studying disk formation, structure, chemistry, and planet formation, and discusses upcoming observational capabilities.

Findings

Radio imaging reveals disk structures and dust growth.

Future telescopes will enable direct detection of proto-planets.

Enhanced resolution will improve understanding of disk kinematics and chemistry.

Abstract

Kant and Laplace suggested the Solar System formed from a rotating gaseous disk in the 18th century, but convincing evidence that young stars are indeed surrounded by such disks was not presented for another 200 years. As we move into the 21st century the emphasis is now on disk formation, the role of disks in star formation, and on how planets form in those disks. Radio wavelengths play a key role in these studies, currently providing some of the highest spatial resolution images of disks, along with evidence of the growth of dust grains into planetesimals. The future capabilities of EVLA and ALMA provide extremely exciting prospects for resolving disk structure and kinematics, studying disk chemistry, directly detecting proto-planets, and imaging disks in formation.