Saturday, January 30, 2016

February 5, 2016 3:30PM BPB-207. Rebekah Dawson. All Planets Great and Small.

Discoveries of exoplanets so different from those in our Solar System have called in question conventional theories for how planetary systems form and evolve. I will present recent progress in our understanding of the physical processes that drive the assembly of planetary systems and result in the surprising variety of orbital architectures we observe today. I will discuss orbital evolution in both the large and small planet regime and physical processes that link planetary orbits to their physical properties and properties of their host stars.