SMA Seminar 03/26/2021

The evolution of millimeter-sized dust in a protoplanetary disk is one of the key observable constrains on the formation of planets. In recent years, surveys of Class II disks in nearby star-forming regions have shown a dependence of the disk mass distribution on cloud properties and environmental factors. The relatively small number of regions surveyed, and the small number of stars in each region, leave some important open questions: Is there a constant initial disk mass distribution, or not? How does the local stellar population affect disks? We present new results from the Survey of Orion Disks with ALMA (SODA), based on observations of 872 disks in the southern part of the Orion A molecular cloud. This flux-limited survey is the largest of its kind so far, and spans a large area on the sky with multiple young groups and clusters. By combining the existing data on young stellar objects in Orion with this rich new sample, we can reveal the properties of disks in unprecedented detail, and begin to answer these questions.