首页

Our solar system makes it seem like the planets were formed in a nice, ordered disc. But dig a little deeper and there are hints that things are not quite as neat as they seem — spins do not align, dust appears to have been violently melted and the planetesimal disc remains sharply truncated at 47 au. The last 10 years has brought us spectacular observations of planet formation `in action’ in the discs of gas and dust around young stars in nearby molecular clouds. I will discuss how observations with ALMA reveal that planets form quickly, in the first Myr of star formation, when things are messy. I will highlight how fresh observations and fresh thinking about planet formation in the context of how stars form changes our view, and helps solve some difficult, old mysteries in the solar system too.

BIO

I am a Professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. Prior to this I was a lecturer in the School of Mathematical Sciences at Monash. Before joining Monash in 2008, I was a Royal Society University Research Fellow in the Astrophysics group of the School of Physics at the University of Exeter, before which I also held a PPARC Postdoctoral Research fellowship at Exeter. I completed my PhD at the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge.

Host: Joshua Calcino