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Asymmetric distribution of dust in an eccentric protoplanetary disk

Image Credit: Pin-Gao Gu

Gas (left panel) and dust (right panel) density maps of a face-on protoplanetary disk harboring a gas giant planet of 5 Jupiter masses.

The dust density map is only shown for the outer part of the disk where the disk becomes eccentric and the black contour indicates the location of the disk pericenter. The asymmetry of density distributions arises from the eccentricity of the disk excited by the tidal fields of the massive planet. The hydrodynamic simulation result can be tested by ALMA.