The disks of dawn. Are the processes that shaped our own Solar System common?

Figure. HL Tauri as seen by ALMA (orange: dust emission, light blue: water vapour emission)

The question of how common is our own Solar System and the processes that led to its current architecture, including the favourable conditions for the development of an inhabited planet, is at the center of a vast branch of astrophysics research. Observations of exoplanet systems seem to suggest that the architecture of our own System may be a rather uncommon occurrence. In parallel, the progress in the exploration and understanding of the different constituents of our own Solar System have shaped a fairly detailed (even if at times debated) view of its origin and early history. In this talk I will discuss our current observational constraints on the properties and evolution of the birthplace of planets, as they are emerging from the last decade of observations. I will highlight the common traits that emerge from the analysis of disk populations, especially for what concerns the timeline for planet formation, the role of the dynamical history of disk-planet interaction, and the physical and chemical evolution of the refractory and volatile constituents of protoplanetary disks. The surprising, and yet, perhaps, scientifically comforting result is that there seem to be a broad similarity in the fundamental processes of exoplanet and our own planet formation. I will conclude highlighting the major open questions and how to address them in the future.

Leonardo Testi – Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna

Leonardo Testi obtained his PhD at the Università di Firenze and Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri in 1997, where he used near infrared observations to study the connection between the formation of massive stars and clusters. He moved into millimetre astronomy during his postdoc at the California Institute of Technology, where he used the Owens Valley Millimeter Array and the VLA to explore the properties of dust in disks and the connection between cloud fragmentation and the IMF. Upon returning to Arcetri, Leonardo continued to work on dust evolution in disks and the initial conditions for planet formation. He got increasingly interested in the promises of the ALMA facility in this research field and joined ESO in 2007. Leonardo remained at ESO working for ALMA and using the ESO facilities to study star and planet formation until 2022 when he moved back to Italy at the Università di Bologna to set up a new research group and teaching on planet formation and evolution.