Stars are the building blocks of galaxies and the hosts of planetary systems. To unravel the intricate processes governing the birth of stars and planets, a comprehensive and interconnected approach is essential.
Under the current view, stars form as a result of the gravitational collapse of interstellar clouds and filaments of gas and dust. The process is characterized by the development of a protostar-disk system, playing a fundamental role in regulating the accretion and ejection of material, and providing the building blocks of planetary systems.
Thanks to the advent of large infrared telescopes and ultra-sensitive radio interferometers, as well as developments in radiative transfer models and numerical simulations, we are able to decipher with increasing detail the physicochemical properties and phenomena (collapsing envelopes, disks, and jets) associated with each stage of the star formation process. In addition, we can now probe protoplanetary disks with exquisite angular resolution, revealing the beginning of the planet formation process.
Disks with azimuthal asymmetries, central cavities, gaps, bright rings, and spirals, thought to be produced by forming planets, are frequently observed. Indeed, infrared and mm point sources, which could be tracing planetary embryos, have been detected inside the cavities and gaps of some disks. All this indicates that planetary formation is consubstantial with the star formation process, suggesting a large abundance of planets comparable to the number of stars in the Universe. However, so far essentially all exoplanets have been found around mature stars, while solid detections of forming planets in protoplanetary disks remain very scarce. On the one hand, this abrupt observational gap between protoplanetary disks, and already formed exoplanets on the other, is a handicap in our understanding of the planetary formation process and the subsequent diversity of planetary systems. Thus, a fundamental task to fill this gap is to increase the number of detections of exoplanets around increasingly younger stars, with a particular focus on detecting forming planets in protoplanetary disks.
This symposium aims to bring together experts on the star and planet formation fields to discuss the progress made recently on the theoretical and observational fronts. This symposium will also serve to promote collaborations and synergies between different communities aiming to understand the origin of planets, in line with the recently approved COST Action “PLANETS” "The birth of solar systems", an EU-funded, interdisciplinary research network.
Credits: Background image: NGC1333 region observed by Subaru; ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Fedriani, J. Tan; Narang et al.; ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO) / Balsalobre-Ruza; A.K. Diaz-Rodriguez & G. Anglada
Designed by Dr. Guillem Anglada (Head of SPFE research group, IAA-CSIC).
Created by Dr. Teresa Gallego (SPFE Postdoctoral fellow, IAA-CSIC) and maintained by Dr. Ruben Fedriani (Juan de la Cierva Fellow, IAA-CSIC).
