Wednesday, January 21, 2026

ALMA Observes The Missing Link In Exoplanet Formation

This figure shows 20 of the debris disks in the ARKS survey from youngest (upper left) to oldest (lower right). A scale bar measures 20 astronomical units in each image. The two oldest disks show faint ring-gap structures. Image Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), N. Ohashi et al.

Back in 2014, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) captured an image of a young protoplanetary disk around a young star named HL Tauri. The image showed gaps and rings in the disk, substructures indicating that young planets forming there. This meant that planet formation began around young stars a lot sooner than thought. ALMA is continuing its investigation of protoplanetary disks in its ARKS survey (ALMA survey to Resolve exoKuiper belt Substructures).



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