Exploring the Features of Protoplanetary Disks

The circumstellar disks which form around young stars hold the key to understanding star and planet formation. The growth of dust particles within the disk is the first step toward planet formation, and these grains must grow from centimeter-sized aggregates to kilometer-sized bodies over the span of a few Myr. However, the processes that lead to the development of these bodies are under debate. In the sub-mm regime, large millimeter-sized grains can be observed and the emergence of planetesimals and protoplanets can be inferred through dust substructures. Through analyzing sub-mm data from the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), we are able to resolve the structure of these disks and determine their properties. The determination of disk masses invites speculation on whether or not the amount of disk material is sufficient to create the exoplanets composing the further-evolved stellar systems we observe. The characteristics of these targets can be catalogued to build a database of targets with information for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which will utilize mid- and near-infrared to observe smaller grains and hot inner-disk material, thus providing another piece of the puzzle in understanding disk evolution and planet formation.