Department of Astronomy and the Steward Observatory
Event: "Giant Planet Migration in the Solar System"
Event Date/Time: November 5, 2009 4:00 pm
Location:Steward Observatory Lecture Hall Room N210
Speaker:Dr. Renu Malhotra
Institution:LPL
Subject(s): Steward/NOAO Colloquium 
Contact:Tod Lauer    email: lauer@noao.edu    phone: 520-318-8290
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Event Description

Posted:
September 9, 2009 12:31 pm

Title: "Giant Planet Migration in the Solar System"

Abstract: Until recently, solar system studies had implicitly assumed that the planets formed in-situ, in -or close to- their presently know orbits, and most planetary research was done in that context. Studies over the past decade find increasing support for the idea that the outer planets have migrated to their present orbits from a previously more compact configuration. The evidence is all over the solar system, as close as the Moon and as far away as Pluto and the Kuiper belt, and is suggestive of a cataclysmically violent epoch well after the planet formation era. I will review this new view of our solar system's history, describe newly identified evidence, and critically assess current theoretical models.