Related papers: Asymmetric features in the protoplanetary disk MWC…
MWC 778 is an unusual and little-studied young stellar object located in the IC 2144 nebula. Recent spectroscopy by Herbig and Vacca (2008) suggested the presence of an edge-on circumstellar disk around it. We present near-infrared adaptive…
Observing dynamical interactions between planets and disks is key to understanding their formation and evolution. Two protoplanets have recently been discovered within PDS 70's protoplanetary disk, along with an arm-like structure towards…
The light distribution in the disks of many galaxies is non-axisymmetric or `lopsided' with a spatial extent much larger along one half of a galaxy than the other, as in M101. Recent near-IR observations show that lopsidedness is common.…
Context. Direct imaging of debris discs gives important information about their nature, their global morphology, and allows us to identify specific structures possibly in connection with the presence of gravitational perturbers. It is the…
We image with unprecedented spatial resolution and sensitivity disk features that could be potential signs of planet-disk interaction. Two companion candidates have been claimed in the disk around the young Herbig Ae/Be star HD100546. Thus,…
We review recent progress in high-resolution imaging of scattered light from disks around young stellar objects. Many new disks have been discovered or imaged in scattered light, and improved instrumentation and observing techniques have…
Circumstellar disks are considered to be the birthplace of planets. Specific structures like spiral arms, gaps, and cavities are characteristic indicators of planet-disk interaction. Investigating these structures can provide insights into…
Scattered light images of transition discs in the near-infrared often show non-axisymmetric structures in the form of wide-open spiral arms in addition to their characteristic low-opacity inner gap region. We study self-gravitating discs…
Crystalline silicates are an important tracer to the dust evolution in protoplanetary disks. In the inner disk, amorphous silicates are annealed by the high temperatures. These crystalline silicates are radially and vertically distributed…
Transitional discs are a class of circumstellar discs around young stars with extensive clearing of dusty material within their inner regions on 10s of au scales. One of the primary candidates for this kind of clearing is the formation of…
Protoplanetary disks with large inner dust cavities are thought to host massive planetary or substellar companions. These disks show asymmetries and rings in the millimeter continuum, caused by dust trapping in pressure bumps, and…
We present K'(2.1 micron) observations of four nearby flocculent spirals, which clearly show low-level spiral structure and suggest that kiloparsec-scale spiral structure is more prevalent in flocculent spirals than previously supposed. In…
We present the first high-resolution study of the disk-halo interface in an edge-on galaxy (NGC 5775) in which every component of the interstellar medium is represented and resolved. New single-dish CO J=2-1 and CO J=1-0 data, ROSAT X-ray…
Radio and near-infrared observations have observed dozens of protoplanetary disks that host spiral arm features. Numerical simulations have shown that companions may excite spiral density waves in protoplanetary disks via companion-disk…
Azimuthal arcs in millimeter continuum emission from protoplanetary disks are often attributed to dust-trapping vortices, but definitive observational confirmation of vortices remains lacking. We present sub-0.1" resolution ALMA continuum…
The dust shell around the evolved star HD 179821 has been detected in scattered light in near-IR imaging polarimetry observations. Here, we subtract the contribution of the unpolarized stellar light to obtain an intrinsic linear…
The volatile contents of protoplanetary disks both set the potential for planetary chemistry and provide valuable probes of defining disk system characteristics such as stellar mass, gas mass, ionization, and temperature structure. Current…
We explore the vertical light distribution as a function of galactocentric radius in the edge-on (i=88) Sd `superthin' galaxy UGC7321. UGC7321 is a low-luminosity spiral (M_B,i=-17.0) with a diffuse, low surface brightness stellar disk and…
We search for signs of ongoing planet-disk interaction and study the distribution of small grains at the surface of the transition disk around RXJ1615.3-3255 (RX J1615). We observed RXJ1615 with VLT/SPHERE. We image the disk for the first…
In protoplanetary disks micron-size dust grains coagulate to form larger structures with complex shapes and compositions. The coagulation process changes the absorption and scattering properties of particles in the disk in significant ways.…