Universe Colloquium: Connections between star, disk, and planet formation

by Lee Hartmann (U Michigan)

Wednesday 6 Jun 2012, 16:30 → 18:00 Europe/Berlin

Seminar Room, Basement (Excellence Cluster Universe, Garching)

This talk will touch on several related topics. First, recent local, statistically-significant evidence that massive stars are less likely to form in lower-density environments are discussed. Then new findings on the structure of protostellar envelopes and how these structures constrain theories of star and protostellar/planetary disk formation will be outlined.  Finally, there will be a review on some recent theoretical investigations of Prof. Hartmann's group concerning disk accretion, fragmentation, and planetary gap formation. This suggests how the observations of variable accretion and disks with large gaps can provide tests of mechanisms for angular momentum transport.