ABSTRACT
The new generation of infrared high-contrast imagers and sub-mm interferometer has been revolutionising our view of planet formation for the last decade. Protoplanetary discs have now been imaged at a high level of detail, revealing a wealth of structures including cavities, annular gaps, spiral arms, shadows and asymmetries. In order to connect these structures to forming planets and provide the most stringent constraints to planet formation theories, we need to directly image newborn planets in these discs. I will first highlight the challenges involved in this endeavour, and will then focus on what we learned with the discovery and follow-up of the PDS 70 b and c protoplanets. I will subsequently present our search for new protoplanets, and highlight the most promising candidates we have identified, along with their preliminary characterization. I will finally describe future prospects for the field, considering the latest generation of instruments and the future advent of Extremely Large Telescopes.
BIO
Valentin Christiaens completed his PhD in 2018 under joint supervision at the University of Chile and the University of Liège (Belgium) under Professors Simon Casassus and Olivier Absil. He then worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Monash University with Daniel Price and Christophe Pinte between 2018 and 2021, where he published the first evidence of a circumplanetary disc around PDS 70 b. Valentin then moved back to the University of Liège as an FNRS fellow between 2021 and 2023, where he maintains a joint position with KU Leuven as a BELSPO Postdoc working on JWST data.
