Over the last 10 years, ALMA observations have transformed our understanding of exoKuiper belts. On one hand, dust continuum observations have constrained the morphology of belts revealing a great diversity in terms of belt radii, widths, and scale heights. On the other hand, CO observations have also shown that exoKuiper belts often contain gas whose origin and implications are still highly uncertain. Most of this progress, however, has been made through low-resolution observations that have prevented us from testing models and theories. This barrier is breaking as the ALMA large program ARKS is characterising 18 exoKuiper belts to understand their detailed radial and vertical structures as well as constraining the distribution and kinematics of gas. In this seminar, I will give an overview of the main advancements over the last 5 years and will summarise the preliminary findings of ARKS.
Cecilia Lazzoni
