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Seminar Detail
Star and Planet Formation
Presenter: John Bally ()
May 19, 2003 12:00 AM Pacific
How common are habitable planets in the Universe? We can seek an answer by
searching for planets around other stars, or by probing the conditions in
which planets form. I will review the second approach. Planets are a
direct by-product of the star-formation process. The majority (~90%) of
stars in the sky form in giant molecular clouds along with luminous,
short-lived, but highly destructive massive stars. In these environments,
proto-planetary disks are subjected to collisions, harsh radiation fields,
powerful winds, and explosions. Thus, potential planet forming disks may be
short lived. The Hubble Space Telescope has provided direct evidence for
rapid disk destruction in the Orion Nebula. These observations imply that
either planets form very rapidly, or that planetary systems will be
relatively rare. I will review our understanding of star and planet
formation with an emphasis on recent observational results.
Participation Instructions
http://nai.arc.nasa.gov/seminars/instructions.cfm
December 21, 2007
The Director’s Seminar series features talks from scientists who are invited by the NAI Director to present their research results to the community. A primary goal of the seminars is to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration across NAI teams and within the astrobiology community at large.
Team Overview Seminars describe the work of the fourteen NAI teams and NAI Central. They offer an opportunity to find out more about the science, E/PO and other activities being performed by the NAI teams and the NAI Central office.
The Forum for Astrobiology Research (FAR) provides an opportunity for graduate students to present their research results and to meet as a student community for networking and mutual support.
The University of Washington seminar series is hosted by the NAI Virtual Planetary Lab (VPL) team from the UW campus in Seattle.
