![Current ALMA can detect the rich chemistry within the snowline around higher-mass stars, with an example spectrum shown in the top panel. For Sun-like stars, mapping across the CO snowline only ( > ∼ 10 au) is currently possible, which corresponds to the giant planet formation zone. The step changes in spatial resolution and sensitivity provided by ALMA2040 will allow us to detect and map the composition of terrestrial-planet-building material around Sun-like stars. Data from Qi et al. (2013), Andrews et al. (2016), and Booth et al. (2024a). -- [astro-ph.IM]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Chemistry-on.png?fit=1200%2C673&ssl=1)
[astro-ph.IM]. The initial chemical composition of planets, primitive bodies in our solar system, and exoplanets is ultimately set by their nascent protoplanetary disks.
Yet observing key carbon-, oxygen-, and nitrogen-bearing molecules (as well as rarer but important sulphur- and phosphorus-bearing species) in the inner (exo)planet-forming zone (≲10~au) remains extremely challenging with current facilities.
Therefore, to construct a complete picture of the chemistry of planet formation and understand how (exo)planetary composition is set by physical and chemical processes within the protoplanetary disk, a more powerful observing facility, i.e., ALMA2040, is needed.
Compared to current ALMA (the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) this new facility must provide >~ a factor of 10 in line sensitivity at a spatial resolution of <~ 5 au at 140 pc, i.e., a factor of 3 – 4 better resolution to low surface brightness emission than currently possible.
This distance includes many star-forming regions such as Taurus and Lupus that are host to populations of Sun-like stars. ALMA2040 will enable mapping of disk chemical composition on terrestrial planet-forming scales (within the water snowline) and detect molecules that are the feedstock for potentially habitable worlds.
Catherine Walsh (1), Maria Drozdovskaya (2), Dmitry Semenov (3), Alice Booth (4), Margot Leemker (5), Eleonora Bianchi (6), Pooneh Nazari (7), Linda Podio (6), Claudio Codella (6), Giovanni Sabatini (6), Elenia Pacetti (8), Diego Turrini (9), Danae Polychroni (9), Myriam Benisty (10), Claudia Toci (11), Marta De Simone (12), Víctor Rivilla (13), Enrique Macias (12), Luna Rampinelli (5), Beatrice Kulterer (14), Claudio Hernández-Vera (15 and 16), Laura Colzi (13), Hideko Nomura (17), Maxime Tanious (18), Ian Czekala (19), Shota Notsu (20 and 21), Quentin Kral (22), Charles Law (23), Liton Majumdar (24 and 25), Stefano Facchini (5), Jenny Frediani (26), Sebastiaan Krijt (27), Teresa Paneque-Carreño (28), Ágnes Kóspál (29), Sébastien Maret (30), Gianni Cataldi (17) ((1) School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, UK, (2) Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Bern, Switzerland, (3) ZAH/ITA, University of Heidelberg, Germany, (4) Centre for Astrophysics \ Harvard & Smithsonian, USA, (5) Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy, (6) INAF/Arcetri Observatory, Italy, (7) Department of Physics, University of Warwick, UK, (8) INAF/IAPS, Italy, (9) INAF/OATO, Italy, (10) MPIA, Germany, (11) Departamento de Fisica Aplicada III, ETSI, Sevilla University, Spain, (12) European Southern Observatory, Garching, Germany, (13) Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), CSIC-INTA, Madrid, Spain, (14) Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia, USA, (15) European Southern Observatory, Santiago, Chile, (16) YEMS, Chile, (17) National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Japan, (18) Institut de Ciències de l’Espai (ICE-CSIC), Spain, (19) Australia Telescope National Facility, CSIRO Space and Astronomy, Australia, (20) Department of Earth and Planetary Science, The University of Tokyo, Japan, (21) Star and Planet Formation Laboratory, RIKEN, Japan, (22) LIRA, Observatoire de Paris, Université PSL, Sorbonne Université, Université Paris Cité, CY Cergy Paris Université, CNRS, France, (23) Minnesota Institute for Astrophysics, University of Minnesota, USA, (24) National Institute of Science Education and Research, Odisha, India, (25) Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai, India, (26) Department of Astronomy, Stockholm University, Sweden, (27) Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Exeter, UK, (28) Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan, USA, (29) Konkoly Observatory, HUN-REN RCAES, Budapest, Hungary, (30) Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IPAG, France)
Comments: Part of the ALMA2040 White Paper Series
Subjects: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM); Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
Cite as: arXiv:2610.22055 [astro-ph.IM] (or arXiv:2610.22055v1 [astro-ph.IM] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2610.22055
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Submission history
From: Catherine Walsh
[v1] Thu, 15 Oct 2026 15:20:46 UTC (4,948 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.22055
Astrobiology,
