Abstract

Streamers funnel material to circumstellar disks from their larger-scale environments. In the past few years, several examples of streamers have been serendipitously found in interferometric observations. These streamers feed material to disks in the Class 0 and I phases, which are still heavily embedded in their natal environments, as well as the later Class II phase when much of the envelope around the protoplanetary disks has mostly dissipated. Significant amounts of fresh material has been measured to be delivered to young disks through the streamer accretion pathway, and hence may heavily influence the dynamics, structure, and chemical budget of disks during the first steps of planet formation. I will highlight some recent observational results and plans, and mention the numerous ways streamers might influence the star and planet formation processes.