Gerrit Postema’s Comps Presentation
Wednesday, March 7th
3:10 pm in Olin 141
A Narrative of Planetary Formation: From Dust to the Late Heavy Bombardment
The formation of the Solar System began with a newborn star surrounded by a turbulent disc of gas and dust. Jostled and shoved by gas eddies, dust particulates began to conglomerate to form rudimentary solid particles which, once grown enough, began to decouple themselves from their gas envelope. These baby planetesimals were stirred until they began to collide and stick, growing from centimeter-sized particles to meter- or kilometer-sized planetesimals. These larger planetesimals started to a˙ect each other with their own gravity, and a positive feedback loop of runaway accretion began. The planetary embryos that resulted from this process entered an oligarchal phase which ended with chaotic collisions of large protoplanets, forming the Solar System we know today. This talk will examine the physics and mechanics behind each of these growth phases. This talk will also discuss more specific computational models of how the present-day planetary arrangement came to be and the many possible outcomes of stochastic growth from protoplanetary oligarchs.
No Comps Presentation
Friday, March 9th
3:30 pm in Olin 141