Planet-forming disks evolve in surprisingly similar ways

Fri 6 May 2022
A group of astronomers, led by Sierk van Terwisga (former Leiden Observatory PostDoc) from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, have analysed the mass distribution of over 870 planet-forming disks in the Orion A cloud. By exploiting the statistical properties of this unprecedented large sample of disks and developing an innovative data processing scheme, they found that far away from harsh environments like hot stars, the decline in disk mass only depends on their age. The results indicate that, at least within 1000 light-years of the Earth, planet-forming disks and planetary systems evolve in similar ways
Read morePubl. Fri 6 May 2022