The Dynamic Inner Disk of a Planet-forming Star

Abstract Planets are a natural byproduct of the stellar formation process, resulting from local aggregations of material within the disks surrounding young stars. Whereas signatures of gas-giant planets at large orbital separations have been observed and successfully modeled within protoplanetary disks, the formation pathways of planets within their host star’s future habitable zones remain poorly understood. Analyzing multiple nights of observations conducted over a short, 2 month span with the MIRC-X and PIONIER instruments at the CHARA Array and VLTI, respectively, we uncover a highly active environment at the inner-edge of the planet formation region in the disk of HD 163296. In particular, we localize and track the motion of a disk feature near the dust-sublimation radius with a pattern speed of less than half the local Keplerian velocity, providing a potential glimpse at the planet formation process in action within the inner astronomical unit. We emphasize that this result is at the edge of what is currently possible with available optical interferometric techniques and behooves confirmation with a temporally dense followup observing campaign.

Authors

Publication Details

Journal
The Astronomical Journal
Published
2025-05-19
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/adcd68
Citations
2
Primary Topic
Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
2.31

Funders

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article

The Dynamic Inner Disk of a Planet-forming Star

Cyprien Lanthermann, Evan A. Rich, Claire L. Davies, J. Kluska et al.
2 citations
The Astronomical Journal
Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
2.31
article

The Dynamic Inner Disk of a Planet-forming Star

Cyprien Lanthermann, Evan A. Rich, Claire L. Davies, J. Kluska, Gail H. Schaefer, John D. Monnier, Fabien Baron, Benjamin R. Setterholm, Stefan Kraus, Narsireddy Anugu, Aaron Labdon, Jacob Ennis, Tyler Gardner, Jaehan Bae, Noura Ibrahim, Nuria Calvet
article en
2 citations

Abstract

Abstract Planets are a natural byproduct of the stellar formation process, resulting from local aggregations of material within the disks surrounding young stars. Whereas signatures of gas-giant planets at large orbital separations have been observed and successfully modeled within protoplanetary disks, the formation pathways of planets within their host star’s future habitable zones remain poorly understood. Analyzing multiple nights of observations conducted over a short, 2 month span with the MIRC-X and PIONIER instruments at the CHARA Array and VLTI, respectively, we uncover a highly active environment at the inner-edge of the planet formation region in the disk of HD 163296. In particular, we localize and track the motion of a disk feature near the dust-sublimation radius with a pattern speed of less than half the local Keplerian velocity, providing a potential glimpse at the planet formation process in action within the inner astronomical unit. We emphasize that this result is at the edge of what is currently possible with available optical interferometric techniques and behooves confirmation with a temporally dense followup observing campaign.

The Astronomical JournalVol. 169(6)
National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Georgia State University, Nuclear Safety and Security Commission, Science and Technology Facilities Council
Openalex Percentile: Top 12%
Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
2.31
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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