DATE2021.09.15 #Press Releases

Untangling the Formation of Planetary Systems with Deuterium

Overview of the press release

An international research team led by Yuri Aikawa, a professor at the University of Tokyo's School of Science, Gianni Cataldi, a postdoc at the University of Tokyo and NAOJ, and Yoshihide Yamato, a graduate student at the University of Tokyo, utilized the superb resolution and sensitivity of ALMA to observe the protoplanetary disks around five young stars as part of an ALMA Large Program, “Molecules with ALMA at Planet-forming Scales,” or MAPS.

ALMA images of the protoplanetary disks around young stars AS 209 and HD 163296. Different molecules have different distributions.

Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), Cataldi et al./Aikawa et al.

The team focused on deuterium, the heavy brother of hydrogen, in protoplanetary disks and found that the deuterium abundance ratios differed by a factor of about 100 among different locations within a single disk, with the abundance ratios becoming smaller closer to the central star. They also revealed the spatial distribution of ionized molecules in the disks. These observations provide clues to understand the physical and chemical conditions during the formation of exoplanets and Solar System objects.

“I believe that we can approach the mystery of the formation process of our Solar System by combing the observations of protoplanetary disks using ALMA, observations and analysis of Solar System material, and predictions based on theoretical research,” said Aikawa.

These observation results are presented as Gianni Cataldi et al. “Molecules with ALMA at Planet-forming Scales (MAPS) X: Studying deuteration at high angular resolution towards protoplanetary disks” and Yuri Aikawa et al. “Molecules with ALMA at Planet-forming Scales (MAPS) XIII: HCO+ and disk ionization structure” and other 18 papers in the MAPS special issue of the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series.

To read the full press release, please visit the website of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.

Publication details

Journal The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series Title "Molecules with ALMA at Planet-forming Scales (MAPS) X: Studying deuteration at high angular resolution towards protoplanetary disks" "Molecules with ALMA at Planet-forming Scales (MAPS) XIII: HCO⁺ and disk ionization structure" Authors Gianni Cataldi et al., Yuri Aikawa et al.

Journal	The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
Title	"Molecules with ALMA at Planet-forming Scales (MAPS) X: Studying deuteration at high angular resolution towards protoplanetary disks" "Molecules with ALMA at Planet-forming Scales (MAPS) XIII: HCO⁺ and disk ionization structure"
Authors	Gianni Cataldi et al., Yuri Aikawa et al.