Research

My research is motivated by questions such as:

  • How do planetary systems form and evolve?
  • Are the Earth and the solar system unique?
  • How is the emergence of life connected to planet formation?

I mainly use the ALMA telescope to observe environments of past or ongoing planet formation: debris disks and protoplanetary disks.

Debris disks

Debris disks are the extrasolar analogues of the solar system’s asteroid and Kuiper belts. They consist of dust, rocks and sometimes gas. As remnants of the planet formation process, they can help us to understand how planetary systems are born and how they evolve.

ALMA image of neutral carbon gas emission from the debris disk around HD 121617 (G. Cataldi)
Artist’s concept of a debris disk (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Protoplanetary disks

Planets form in gas-rich disks around young stars, so-called protoplanetary disks. To chemistry of the disk heavily impacts the chemical composition of the planets forming within the disk. ALMA can observe the emission from various molecules that help us to decipher protoplanetary disk chemistry.

Artist’s concept of a protoplanetary disk (NASA/JPL-Caltech)
ALMA image of DCN gas emission from the protoplanetary disk around AS 209 (Cataldi et al. 2021)