Abstract

The Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) has granted us the sharpest view of protoplanetary disks, the planet formation environment, to date. These disks are reservoirs of planet-forming material and have been found to host a stunning variety of substructure. Gaps, rings and spirals are routinely observed in the distribution of large dust grains, suggestive of dynamical processing by an unseen population of recently formed planets. I will demonstrate how through studies of the gas structure, in concert with the development of new data analysis techniques, I have been able to detect the young planets responsible for the structure we have seen in the dust. I will show how we are now able to conduct a thorough chemical inventory of the planet forming material, and trace the delivery of these materials to young planets during the accretion of their atmospheres. Finally, I will highlight how the mapping of the disk’s dynamical structure is providing a unique opportunity to identify the hydrodynamical processes that are driving planet formation and influencing the global evolution of the protoplanetary disks. To conclude, I will discuss the future of these studies, detailing how upcoming observational facilities and large-scale numerical simulations will enable us to characterize the entire planet formation process, a process that will provide essential context for the study of mature planets, both those within our Solar System and those further afield.