When radio telescopes like ALMA peer into stellar nurseries, they capture the whispered conversations of gas molecules swirling around newborn stars. These protoplanetary discs - the birthplaces of planets - reveal their secrets through molecular line emission, but extracting meaningful physics from the complex three-dimensional dance of gas requires sophisticated modeling. Enter discminer, a Python toolkit that transforms raw channel maps into detailed portraits of disc dynamics and structure.
This parametric modeling powerhouse fits both intensity and rotation velocity simultaneously, capturing the full complexity of Keplerian motion while accounting for pressure support and self-gravity. It maps the disc’s vertical structure by modeling emission from both front and back surfaces, extracts rotation curves and three-dimensional velocity components, and identifies substructures that might herald forming planets. The toolkit generates accurate moment maps, computes radial and meridional velocity profiles, and supports fully three-dimensional, non-axisymmetric models for the most complex disc geometries.
Whether you’re hunting for planet-carved gaps, measuring gas temperatures, or mapping turbulent motions, discminer provides the analytical firepower to mine cosmic gold from your observational data. Its modular design makes it equally valuable for quick exploratory analysis and publication-quality detailed modeling of disc physics.
⭐ Stars: 23
💻 Language: Python
🔗 Repository: andizq/discminer