Related papers: LkCa 15: A Young Exoplanet Caught at Formation?
We present deep high-resolution ($\sim$50 mas, 8 au) ALMA 0.88 and 1.3 mm continuum observations of the LkCa 15 disk. The emission morphology shows an inner cavity and three dust rings at both wavelengths, but with slightly narrower rings…
The physical and chemical conditions in young protoplanetary disks set the boundary conditions for planet formation. Although the dust in disks is relatively easily detected as a far-IR photometric ``excess'' over the expected photospheric…
(Abridged) We present CARMA observations of the thermal dust emission from the circumstellar disks around the young stars RYTau and DGTau at wavelengths of 1.3mm and 2.8mm. The angular resolution of the maps is as high as 0.15arcsec, or…
We report the detection of three small transiting planets around the young K3 dwarf K2-233 (2MASS J15215519-2013539) from observations during Campaign 15 of the K2 mission. The star is relatively nearby ($d$ = 69 pc) and bright ($V$ = 10.7…
We have searched a sample of 151 young, energetic pulsars for periodic variation in pulse time-of-arrival arising from the influence of planetary companions. We are sensitive to objects with masses two orders of magnitude lower than those…
Using the VLA, we recently detected a large number of protoplanetary disk (proplyd) candidates lying within a couple of light years of the massive black hole Sgr A*. The bow-shock appearance of proplyd candidates point toward the young…
Nearby associations are ideal regions to study coeval samples of protoplanetary and debris disks down to late M-type stars. Those aged 5-10,Myrs, where most of the disk should have already dissipated forming planets, are of particular…
Giant planets are expected to form at orbital radii that are relatively large compared to transit and radial velocity detections (>1 AU). As a result, giant planet formation is best observed through direct imaging. By simulating the…
A giant planet embedded in a protoplanetary disk forms a gap. An analytic relationship among the gap depth, planet mass $M_{p}$, disk aspect ratio $h_p$, and viscosity $\alpha$ has been found recently, and the gap depth can be written in…
It has been suggested that the gaps and cavities recently discovered in transitional disks are opened by planets. To explore this scenario, we combine two-dimensional two fluid (gas + particle) hydrodynamical calculations with…
Very young massive planets are sufficiently luminous by their internal heat of formation to permit detailed studies, including spectroscopy of their atmospheres with large telescopes at sufficient resolution ($\lambda / \Delta \lambda…
We present new K- and L'-band imaging of a representative sample of members of the young 3-5 Myr old sigma Orionis cluster. We identified objects with (K-L') excess by analysing colour-colour diagrams and comparing the observations with…
We discuss the properties of several circumstellar debris disk systems imaged with the Hubble Space Telescope's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer in a survey of young stars with known far-IR excesses. These dusty disks…
We investigate the nature of an unusually faint member of the $\epsilon$ Cha Association ($D\sim100$ pc, age $\sim5$ Myr), the nearest region of star formation of age $<$8 Myr. This object, 2MASS J11550336-7919147 (2M1155$-$79B), is a wide…
In this short review, we summarize our present understanding (and non-understanding) of exoplanet formation, structure and evolution, in the light of the most recent discoveries. Recent observations of transiting massive brown dwarfs seem…
Despite the wide range of planet-star (mis)alignments in the mature population of transiting exoplanets, the small number of known young transiting planets are nearly all aligned with the rotation axes of their host stars, as determined by…
Since the first massive planet in a short period orbit was discovered, the question arised how such an object could have formed. There are basically two formation scenarios: migration due to planet-disk or planet-planet interaction. Which…
We study the protoplanetary disk lifetimes using a large sample of young stellar objects in nearby clusters. To investigate the final phase of disk dissipation, we selected 32 clusters, located within 500 pc and aged between 1 and 100 Myr,…
The evolution of planet-forming disks and the processes of planet formation influence each other, and both of them are possibly impacted by the local environment. Extensive high-resolution imagery of disks across space and time is the best…
We present the discovery and characterization of two warm mini-Neptunes transiting the K3V star TOI-815 in a K-M binary system. Analysis of the spectra and rotation period reveal it to be a young star with an age of $200^{+400}_{-200}$Myr.…