Researchers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), have for the first time, achieved a precise size measurement of small dust particles around a young star through radio-wave polarization. ALMA’s high sensitivity for detecting polarized radio waves made possible this important step in tracing the formation of planets around young stars.

These observation results were published as Kataoka et al. “Millimeter Polarization Observation of the Protoplanetary Disk around HD 142527” in the Astrophysical Journal Letters in November 2016.

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• ALMA measures size of seeds of planets (ALMA)