New Views into Planet Formation with ALMA

Two recent press releases from ALMA have presented new results from the investigation of planet formation in other star systems.

Images of dust discs around stars in the Sigma Orionis Cluster. Credit: ALMA (ESO/JAO/NAOJ/NRAO), J. Huang et. al.

First, ALMA observations of the Sigma Orionis Cluster have revealed that multiple stars within the cluster have protoplanetary disks. Moreover, many of these disks have the types of gaps that are commonly associated with planets formation. What makes this result noteworthy is that the Sigma Orionis Cluster is strongly irradiated by ultraviolet light from a nearby O9.5 star, which was expected to inhibit star formation. These ALMA results have demonstrated that planets can unexpectedly form in extremely harsh environments. More information is available from both the press release and the scientific paper.

Second, new ALMA observations of the well-studied star system PDS 70 have revealed new results for how planets are forming there. Prior ALMA observations have been used to study two planetary objects within the ring of gas in this system, but newer ALMA observations have revealed that the low frequency emission from that ring is asymmetric, even though the emission at higher frequencies is symmetric. This new result indicates that the two planets are potentially gravitationally interacting with the material within the ring to cause it to collapse into a third planet. See the press release and the article in the Astrophysical Journal Letters for more details.

Towards ALMA 2040

The astronomical community is continuing to plan for the next ground-based astronomical facilities. One of these initiatives, named ALMA 2040, will get started with a series of workshop that will be held in various locations in Europe starting in 2025. These workshops will try to identify the scientific interest of the astronomical community and the key scientific questions that should be answered by such a new submillimetre/millimetre facility.

People interested in these developmental activities should fill in the form available via this link. This includes opportunities to join one or more of the scientific Working Groups (including potentially leading one of the groups), to submit ideas for the science cases for these groups, and to provide general feedback. Additionally, by filling in this form, people can express interest in attending one or more of the workshops, the first of which will take place the week of 19-23 May in Heidelberg, Germany.

UK ALMA Regional Centre Support Information and Contact Details

The UK ALMA Regional Centre Node is available to provide support to people working with or interested in working with ALMA. This may include help with preparatory data analysis, including the use of archival data, proposal and observing preparation, data calibration and imaging, and subsequent data analyses. We can also provide computing facilities for ALMA data processing and training for individuals or groups of people.

If you have any ALMA science results that they want to share with the UK ALMA community, please contact us, and we will endeavour to include those results in our next newsletter and on our website.

For any ALMA-related queries or support requests, please contact the UK ARC Node via the following:

ALMA Helpdesk: help.almascience.org
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Web: www.alma.ac.uk