Hints of a Population of Solar System Analog Planets from ALMA
Deryl Long, Ke Zhang, Richard Teague, Edwin Bergin

TL;DR
This study analyzes a compact protoplanetary disk around GQ Lup A using ALMA data, revealing substructures similar to larger disks, which suggests planet formation processes are common even in smaller disks, hinting at solar system analogs.
Contribution
It demonstrates that small, compact disks can host substructures indicative of planet formation, expanding understanding beyond large, bright disks.
Findings
Detection of a gap at ~10 au in GQ Lup A's disk
Similar substructures found in small disks as in larger DSHARP disks
Evidence supporting planet formation at Saturnian distances
Abstract
The recent ALMA DSHARP survey provided illuminating results on the diversity of substructures in planet forming disks. These substructures trace pebble-sized grains accumulated at local pressure maxima, possibly due to planet-disk interactions or other planet formation processes. DSHARP sources are heavily biased to large and massive disks that only represent the high (dust flux) tail end of the disk population. Thus it is unclear whether similar substructures and corresponding physical processes also occur in the majority of disks which are fainter and more compact. Here we explore the presence and characteristics of features in a compact disk around GQ Lup A, the effective radius of which is 1.5 to 10 times smaller than those of DSHARP disks. We present our analysis of ALMA 1.3mm continuum observations of the GQ Lup system. By fitting visibility profiles of the continuum emission, we…
Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.
Taxonomy
TopicsAstrophysics and Star Formation Studies · Astro and Planetary Science · Molecular Spectroscopy and Structure
