Crash, Boom, Bang: Giant Impacts & the Formation of Planets at Home and Abroad

Recent observations by the Kepler space telescope have led to the discovery of more than 4000 exoplanet candidates consisting of many systems with Earth- to Neptune-sized objects that reside well inside the orbit of Mercury, around their respective host stars. How and where these close-in planets formed is one of the major unanswered questions in planet formation. I will present recent results concerning initial disk masses and atmospheric mass-loss due to impacts and will discuss their implications for terrestrial planet formation in our Solar System and the origin of close-in Super-Earths and Mini-Neptunes.

http://www.ias.edu/sns/~seminar/colloquia.shtml