Some assembly required: Nature's instruction booklet for planetary migration

We once thought planets formed peacefully in situ in their natal disks and subsequently followed their orbits like clockwork. However, there is growing evidence that the typical planetary system forms with "some assembly required" and undergoes a dynamical rearrangement through planetary migration processes. The nature of this migration remains debated, in particular whether the migration is caused by smooth planet-disk interactions or violent multi-body interactions. Here I present work toward understanding Nature's instruction booklet for planetary migration in extra-solar planetary systems and our own solar system.

Speaker: Rebekah Dawson, UC Berkeley