The Structure and Evolution of Protoplanetary Disks: an infrared and submillimeter view

TL;DR

This review summarizes infrared and submillimeter observations of protoplanetary disks, discussing their structure, evolution, and implications for planet formation, with a focus on recent ALMA findings and future prospects.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of observational results from infrared and submillimeter studies, emphasizing new insights from ALMA data and future potential in the field.

Findings

Disk lifetimes and demographics characterized

Identification of transition objects and their properties

ALMA observations reveal detailed disk structures

Abstract

Circumstellar disks are the sites of planet formation, and the very high incidence of extrasolar planets implies that most of them actually form planetary systems. Studying the structure and evolution of protoplanetary disks can thus place important constraints on the conditions, timescales, and mechanisms associated with the planet formation process. In this review, we discuss observational results from infrared and submillimeter wavelength studies. We review disk lifetimes, transition objects, disk demographics, and highlight a few remarkable results from ALMA Early Science observations. We finish with a brief discussion of ALMA's potential to transform the field in near future.