Planet forming disk populations and their connection to the environment
Abstract
Existing sub-mm observatories such as ALMA have provided statistics on the planet-forming mass reservoirs within circumstellar disks around stars in stellar clusters out to distances of ∼400pc. However, these disks are not where most planets form. Many stars, and hence planets, form in more massive clusters, which are only found at larger distances. Environmental conditions that affect disks - such as UV radiation field, ambient gaseous mass reservoir, and stellar density - change significantly as a function of cluster mass, implying that our current knowledge of the disk population from current facilities is severely biased. Characterising planet formation in stellar clusters towards the peak of the cluster mass function requires determining the distribution of planet forming disk masses out to ∼3kpc, which encapsulates the nearby parts of the Sagittarius arm of the Milky Way and contains multiple massive stellar clusters. ALMA2040 will provide the leap in sensitivity needed to move beyond detections of only a handful of disks and robustly measure the slope and median of the disk mass distribution at these distances. This will mark the transition from studying individual detections to population-level studies of planet formation across diverse cluster environments. This has synergy with existing and upcoming measurements of accretion rates in these distant clusters, which combined provide a measure of the accretion timescale, enabling us to distinguish various evolutionary pathways and assess how they depend on cluster mass and star-forming environment.
Related
- Planetary gas gaps and kinematic signatures in the planet forming disk around WISPIT 2
- Pathfinder results for populations of planet-forming discs with SKA
- Up in smoke: carbon-destruction in the terrestrial planet-forming region of a young Class I disk
- Gravitational instability in planet-forming discs
- Disk survey in the Serpens star-forming region: Environmental effects in nearby star-forming regions
BibTeX
@misc{haworth2026planet,
title = {{Planet forming disk populations and their connection to the environment}},
author = {Thomas J. Haworth and Giovanni Rosotti and Carlo Manara and Richard Alexander and Rossella Anania and Til Birnstiel and Ryan Boyden and Nicolás Cuello and Ian Czekala and Vardan Elbakyan and Stefano Facchini and Fabiola Gerosa and Aashish Gupta and Dominika Itrich and Luke Keyte and Ágnes Kóspál and Giuseppe Lodato and Enrique Macias and Luca Matra and Rebecca Nealon and Sasha Paine and Danae Polychroni and Tyger Peake and Daniel Price and Lin Qiao and Álvaro Ribas and Sarah Sadavoy and Antranik A. Sefilian and Maxime Tanious and Sierk van Terwisga and Claudia Toci and Diego Turrini and Eduard Vorobyov and Catherine Walsh and Andrew Winter and Alice S. Booth and Liton Majumdar and Jenny Frediani},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.20715},
eprint = {2610.20715},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.20715},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Planet forming disk populations and their connection to the environment
AU - Thomas J. Haworth
AU - Giovanni Rosotti
AU - Carlo Manara
AU - Richard Alexander
AU - Rossella Anania
AU - Til Birnstiel
AU - Ryan Boyden
AU - Nicolás Cuello
AU - Ian Czekala
AU - Vardan Elbakyan
AU - Stefano Facchini
AU - Fabiola Gerosa
AU - Aashish Gupta
AU - Dominika Itrich
AU - Luke Keyte
AU - Ágnes Kóspál
AU - Giuseppe Lodato
AU - Enrique Macias
AU - Luca Matra
AU - Rebecca Nealon
AU - Sasha Paine
AU - Danae Polychroni
AU - Tyger Peake
AU - Daniel Price
AU - Lin Qiao
AU - Álvaro Ribas
AU - Sarah Sadavoy
AU - Antranik A. Sefilian
AU - Maxime Tanious
AU - Sierk van Terwisga
AU - Claudia Toci
AU - Diego Turrini
AU - Eduard Vorobyov
AU - Catherine Walsh
AU - Andrew Winter
AU - Alice S. Booth
AU - Liton Majumdar
AU - Jenny Frediani
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/14
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.20715
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.20715
AB - Existing sub-mm observatories such as ALMA have provided statistics on the planet-forming mass reservoirs within circumstellar disks around stars in stellar clusters out to distances of ∼400pc. However, these disks are not where most planets form. Many stars, and hence planets, form in more massive clusters, which are only found at larger distances. Environmental conditions that affect disks - such as UV radiation field, ambient gaseous mass reservoir, and stellar density - change significantly as a function of cluster mass, implying that our current knowledge of the disk population from current facilities is severely biased. Characterising planet formation in stellar clusters towards the peak of the cluster mass function requires determining the distribution of planet forming disk masses out to ∼3kpc, which encapsulates the nearby parts of the Sagittarius arm of the Milky Way and contains multiple massive stellar clusters. ALMA2040 will provide the leap in sensitivity needed to move beyond detections of only a handful of disks and robustly measure the slope and median of the disk mass distribution at these distances. This will mark the transition from studying individual detections to population-level studies of planet formation across diverse cluster environments. This has synergy with existing and upcoming measurements of accretion rates in these distant clusters, which combined provide a measure of the accretion timescale, enabling us to distinguish various evolutionary pathways and assess how they depend on cluster mass and star-forming environment.
ER -