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Abstract The outer regions of the protoplanetary disc surrounding the T Tauri star HD 143006 show rings, dust asymmetries and shadows. Whilst rings and dust asymmetries can arise from companions and other mechanisms, shadows and misaligned discs in particular are typically attributed to the presence of misaligned planets or stellar-mass companions. To understand the mechanisms that drive these traits, the innermost regions of discs need to be studied. Using CHARA/MIRCX and VLTI/PIONIER, we observed the sub-au region of HD 143006 . We constrain the orientation of the inner disc of HD 143006 and probe whether a misalignment between the inner and outer disc could be the cause of the shadows. Modelling the visibilities using a geometric model, the inclination and position angle are found to be i = 22○ ± 3○ and PA = 158○ ± 8○ respectively, with an inner dust sublimation radius of ~0.04 au. The inner disc is misaligned by 39○ ± 4○ with respect to the outer disc, with the far side of the inner disc to the east and the far side of the outer disc to the west. We constrain h/R (scattering surface/radius of scattered light) of the outer disc at 18 au to be about 13 % by calculating the offset between the shadow position and the central star. No companion was detected, with a magnitude contrast of 4.4 in the H-band and placing an upper mass limit of 0.17M⊙ at separations of 0 − 8 au. Therefore, we cannot confirm or rule out that a low-mass star or giant planet is responsible for the misalignment and dust sub-structures. 

Abstract Planets are a natural byproduct of the stellar formation process, resulting from local aggregations of material within the disks surrounding young stars. Whereas signatures of gas-giant planets at large orbital separations have been observed and successfully modeled within protoplanetary disks, the formation pathways of planets within their host star’s future habitable zones remain poorly understood. Analyzing multiple nights of observations conducted over a short, 2 month span with the MIRC-X and PIONIER instruments at the CHARA Array and VLTI, respectively, we uncover a highly active environment at the inner-edge of the planet formation region in the disk of HD 163296. In particular, we localize and track the motion of a disk feature near the dust-sublimation radius with a pattern speed of less than half the local Keplerian velocity, providing a potential glimpse at the planet formation process in action within the inner astronomical unit. We emphasize that this result is at the edge of what is currently possible with available optical interferometric techniques and behooves confirmation with a temporally dense followup observing campaign.