The demographics of pre-main sequence STARS and their disks

The National Science Foundation Division of Astronomical Sciences awarded Associated Universities Inc. $222,386 on September 1, 2026, under the Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049) to characterize the demographics and properties of pre-main sequence stars and their protoplanetary disks.

The research team will develop AI and machine learning tools for efficient forward modeling of protoplanetary disk radiative transfer models applied to Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) and Very Large Array (VLA) observations. These tools will enable analysis of the youngest protoplanetary disks—less than one million years old—to constrain planet formation physics at its earliest stages. The project will focus on the entire population of young stars in a target region to establish baseline properties that reflect the starting conditions of planet formation, thereby informing theories about how planetary systems form and evolve. The award also supports graduate student training in astrophysics and high school student exposure to astronomy research.

Performance runs from September 1, 2026, through August 31, 2029, with work conducted in Vienna, Virginia.

Abstract

Planets form in ?protoplanetary disks,? Rotating disks of gas and dust that form around young STARS. The properties of planets in our own solar system, as well as those of the many exoplanets that are now being discovered, can be tied back to the conditions in these disks. Even so, the most commonly studied protoplanetary disks have already had a few million years to process material, and they already show signs that planet formation may be well underway. Some even show evidence that they may be harboring planets that have already formed, so their properties do not reflect the starting point of planet formation, yielding less stringent constraints on theories of planet formation. To better understand how planet formation begins in protoplanetary disks, this project will determine the properties of infant protoplanetary disks that are less than one million years old and thus better represent the earliest stages of planet formation. Understanding their properties will therefore place important constraints on the physics of how planets form, shedding light on how the solar system came to be, and its place in the growing population of exoplanetary systems. This project will train a graduate student in astrophysics and expose high school students to astronomy research. To measure the properties of the youngest protoplanetary disks, the research team will use cutting edge AI/machine learning techniques to develop efficient tools for carrying out forward modeling of protoplanetary disk radiative transfer models to alma and VLA observations. They will then apply this advanced framework to alma/VLA observations of the entire population of young (