Theory Seminar

DATE: 2015-02-03 14:00 - 15:00
PLACE: Meeting room3, Kenkyu Honkan 1st Building
TITLE: Simulating Formation of Terrestrial Planets
CONTACT: Hajime Takami, takami-AT-post.kek.jp
SPEAKER: Prof. Eiichiro Kokubo  (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan)
LANGUAGE: English
ABSTRACT: Recent exoplanet surveys revealed that terrestrial planets are ubiquitous in the Galaxy. In the standard scenario, a planetary system forms from a protoplanetary disk that consists of gas and dust. The standard scenario of terrestrial planet formation can be divided into three stages: (1) planetesimal formation, (2) protoplanet formation, and (3) planet formation. In stage (1), planetesimals form from dust. Planetesimals are small building blocks of solid planets. Planetesimals grow by mutual collisions to protoplanets or planetary embryos in stage (2). In stage (3) terrestrial planets are formed by giant impacts among protoplanets. Today these stages are investigated mainly by numerical simulations since they includes complex and non-linear processes. In the present talk, I review the basic elementary processes of terrestrial planet formation, showing some recent numerical simulations.

Back