High resolution millimetre imaging of the CI Tau protoplanetary disc - a massive ensemble of protoplanets from 0.1 - 100 au

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution millimeter imaging to reveal a young star system, CI Tau, hosting four massive planets including a hot Jupiter, indicating early formation of complex planetary systems.

Contribution

First detailed millimeter imaging of CI Tau revealing multiple protoplanets and gaps, providing insights into early planetary system formation.

Findings

Detection of three annular gaps likely caused by massive planets

Presence of four gas giant planets within 100 au at only 2 million years old

System's planetary architecture resembles older systems like HL Tau

Abstract

We present high resolution millimeter continuum imaging of the disc surrounding the young star CI Tau, a system hosting the first hot Jupiter candidate in a protoplanetary disc system. The system has extended mm emission on which are superposed three prominent annular gaps at radii ~ 13, 39 and 100 au. We argue that these gaps are most likely to be generated by massive planets so that, including the hot Jupiter, the system contains four gas giant planets at an age of only 2 Myr. Two of the new planets are similarly located to those inferred in the famous HL Tau protoplanetary disc; in CI Tau, additional observational data enables a more complete analysis of the system properties than was possible for HL Tau. Our dust and gas dynamical modeling satisfies every available observational constraint and points to the most massive ensemble of exo-planets ever detected at this age, with its four planets spanning a factor 1000 in orbital radius.Our results show that the association between hot Jupiters and gas giants on wider orbits, observed in older stars, is apparently in place at an early evolutionary stage.