Original title: Disk survey in the Serpens star-forming region: Environmental effects in nearby star-forming regions
Simin Tong, Nienke van der Marel, Jonathan P. Williams, Alexa R. Anderson · September 2026
Surrounding environments affect the evolution of planet-forming disks around young stars. Powerful radiation can evaporate disk gas, while close encounters between stars can trim down disk sizes and strip away material. Scientists wanted to see how crowded conditions specifically shape these disks. They used the ALMA telescope to observe dust disks around young stars in Serpens, a dense region without strong radiation from massive stars. They calculated disk dust massesThe total mass of solid particles in a protoplanetary disk, measured from millimeter-wavelength observations. and recomputed stellar crowding using space telescope data, comparing Serpens to other nearby star-forming groups. They discovered that the dust mass distribution in Serpens closely matches regions of similar age, like Lupus and Taurus. This shows that stellar encountersClose passes between stars that can gravitationally disrupt and truncate disks. have not noticeably trimmed Serpens disks. In Ophiuchus and Corona Australis, low disk mass mysteries resolve when examining verified young sub-cluster members. Unidentified, clustered disks in Ophiuchus remain lighter, pointing to potential early tidal trimming.
Imagine living in a crowded apartment building with thin walls. You might expect constant noise from neighbors, disrupting your peace. But sometimes, even in dense buildings, people manage to have quiet lives if disturbances are rare or mild. In this paper, astronomers check if stars in dense regions have their disk materials stripped away by neighborly interactions, but find that in some dense places like Serpens, disks remain largely intact, similar to those in quieter neighborhoods.
This research helps astronomers understand how the birthplace of planets influences their formation. By revealing whether crowded stellar neighborhoods strip away planet-building material, it shapes our view of planetary systems across the galaxy.
The abstract does not establish that tidal truncation never occurs in dense regions; it only suggests it's not strong in Serpens based on the data. The comparison is limited to nearby star-forming regions, and results for un-identified disks in Ophiuchus are tentative, as they are not explicitly identified as members. The study relies on the optically thin assumption for mass measurements, which may have uncertainties.
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Disk survey in the Serpens star-forming region: Environmental effects in nearby star-forming regions — Simin Tong, Nienke van der Marel, Jonathan P. Williams et al.
Abstract licence: CC0
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper. This is a preprint, so it hasn't necessarily been peer reviewed.