First results from the ALMA planet hunting campaign: the exoALMA Large Program

Exoplanetary systems show an incredible diversity, hosting planets with a vast range of masses, radii, and orbital separations. However, it is unclear whether this diversity stems from a distribution of initial conditions, and/or the result of multiple planet formation pathways. It is therefore fundamental to detect young, embedded planets during the process of formation. While the planets likely remain hidden by the disk at near-infrared wavelengths, they leave clear signatures in the velocity field in their vicinity, which can be detected with line observations with ALMA. This led to the development of the “disk kinematic” planet detection method in the last 5 years and offers a unique opportunity to probe the distribution of planets at the earliest stages of their formation. In this contribution, we present the results of the exoALMA planet-hunting campaign that targeted 15 protoplanetary disks with deep, high spatial, and high spectral resolution line observations. exoALMA offers the most complete view of planets at the extreme beginning of the age distribution. We will discuss our planet detection statistics, the constraints we can place on these youngest planets, the implications of these detections for the planet formation pathways, and our new kinematic view of the physical processes at play during planet formation.