Establishing a global observational view of the early stages of planet formation and evolution

Project Information

PROTOPLANETS

Grant agreement ID: 101002188

DOI

10.3030/101002188

EC signature date 8 April 2021

Start date 1 January 2022

End date 31 October 2027

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 1 673 510,00

EU contribution

€ 1 673 510,00

Coordinated by

MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FORDERUNG DER WISSENSCHAFTEN EV
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - PROTOPLANETS (Establishing a global observational view of the early stages of planet formation and evolution)

Reporting period: 2024-07-01 to 2026-02-28

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Recent observing campaigns have revealed a great diversity in exoplanetary systems whose origin is yet to be understood. It is still unclear how and when planets form, and how they evolve and interact with their host protoplanetary disks while the latter naturally evolve. This project aims to tackle these fundamental questions, with a particular focus on detecting and characterizing forming giant planets, as well as understanding the conditions necessary for terrestrial planet formation.

It is a fundamental problem for our society, as it lies at the heart of the question of the origin of life – replaced in the context of our own solar system, the formation and evolution of giant planets like Jupiter at early stages have a direct impact on the subsequent formation of terrestrial planets and the onset of life.

The main objective of PROTOPLANETS is to establish a global observational picture of the early stages of planetary systems formation and evolution. By searching for protoplanets and studying their imprint on their birth environments, we can constrain the processes happening while planets form.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

In the first half of the project, our team designed various projects aiming to:
- Search for protoplanets embedded in disks as observed in direct imaging and through their impact on the disk kinematics
- Characterize protoplanets properties through the modelling of kinematical deviations with a semi-analytical approach
- Understand the physico-chemical conditions in disks shaped by giant planets
- Study the gas dynamics in the immediate vicinity of a planet and its chemical evolution
- Understand the evolution of dust grains in protoplanetary disks shaped by planets
- Understand the influence of the extended birth environment on planet formation

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The development of observational and theoretical frameworks for the analysis of disk properties based on gas and dust emission have the potential to bring significant constraints on the nature of protoplanets and the properties of the overall population of giant planets in disks. New data, at high spectral and spatial resolution will allow to probe both inner and outer disk regions, a key approach to assess the diversity of imprints left by those giant planets.