AS 209 ALMA image

The outer dust gap is consistent with the presence of a giant planet (M_planet_~0.8M_Saturn_); the planet is responsible for the gap opening and for the pile-up of dust at the outer edge of the planet orbit. The simulations also show that the same planet could be the origin of the inner gap at r=62au. The relative position of the two dust gaps is close to the 2:1 resonance and we have investigated the possibility of a second planet inside the inner gap.

The resulting surface density (including location, width and depth of the two dust gaps) are in agreement with the observations. The properties of the inner gap pose a strong constraint to the mass of the inner planet (M_planet_<0.1M_J_). In both scenarios (single or pair of planets), the hydrodynamical simulations suggest a very low disk viscosity ({alpha}<10^-4^).

Given the young age of the system (0.5-1Myr), this result implies that the formation of giant planets occurs on a timescale of <~1Myr.