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The Endgame of Planet Formation


Oct. 21, 2020, 1 p.m. - 2 p.m.
Zoom

Presented By:
Professor Eugene Chiang
UC Berkeley, Depts. of Astronomy and Earth & Planetary Science

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Speaker: Professor Eugene Chiang, UC Berkeley Bio: Eugene Chiang is a faculty member at Berkeley in the Departments of Astronomy and Earth and Planetary Science. He received his bachelor's in Physics from MIT and his PhD in Astronomy from Caltech. He is a theorist with interests in all things planetary. He served as Director of Berkeley's Center for Integrative Planetary Science from 2011-2015 and as Astronomy Department Chair from 2015-2018. He has received Berkeley's Noyce Prize for undergraduate instruction in the physical sciences, and the Berkeley Distinguished Teaching award which is the highest recognition for teaching on campus. He is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Abstract: Super-Earths/Sub-Neptunes are planets ~1--4 Earth radii and ~1--20 Earth masses, composed of solids and gas in proportions of 100:1 by mass. We describe how super-Earths/sub-Neptunes form: the assembly of their rocky cores, the accretion of their atmospheres, and the distribution of their orbits inside and outside of mean-motion resonances.