Physics Colloquium- Migratory planets and chaos in the young solar system

Abstract: Our understanding of the solar system has undergone a revolution in recent decades, owing to new observational discoveries and new theoretical insights into its rich dynamical structure.  The emerging picture is one of dramatic orbital migration of the giant planets in the early history of the solar system, driven by interaction with the primordial Kuiper belt, which produced the solar system architecture that we live in today.  The evidence is all over the solar system, as close as the Moon and as far away as Pluto and the Kuiper belt.  While this evidence is compelling, there is also tension with the observed properties of the inner solar system: the migration of the giant planets should have caused severe, potentially destabilizing, perturbations on the terrestrial planets' orbits.  I will describe these developments and some ideas for moving forward in our understanding of the dynamical history of the solar system.  
 
 
** Refreshments served from 2:45pm – 3:00pm in PAS 218.  Thank you. **