Three years of SPHERE: the latest view of the morphology and evolution of protoplanetary discs

TL;DR

This paper reviews three years of SPHERE observations, highlighting advances in imaging protoplanetary discs, revealing complex structures likely linked to planet formation, and demonstrating the effectiveness of polarimetric differential imaging.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of recent SPHERE results, emphasizing the role of polarimetric imaging in studying disc morphology and evolution.

Findings

Detection of complex disc structures

Evidence of ongoing planet formation

Enhanced imaging techniques for protoplanetary discs

Abstract

Spatially resolving the immediate surroundings of young stars is a key challenge for the planet formation community. SPHERE on the VLT represents an important step forward by increasing the opportunities offered by optical or near-infrared imaging instruments to image protoplanetary discs. The Guaranteed Time Observation Disc team has concentrated much of its efforts on polarimetric differential imaging, a technique that enables the efficient removal of stellar light and thus facilitates the detection of light scattered by the disc within a few au from the central star. These images reveal intriguing complex disc structures and diverse morphological features that are possibly caused by ongoing planet formation in the disc. An overview of the recent advances enabled by SPHERE is presented.