PLANETS BIG AND SMALL Planets in our solar system can be divided into rocky terrestrials as large as the Earth vs. gassy giants as small as Neptune. Planets outside of our solar system, on the other hand, look nothing like our own, with most of these detected exoplanets falling right in between the size of the Earth and Neptune. How can we understand such differences? I will describe the underlying physics that drives the huge diversity in the observed exoplanetary population and discuss how future missions can help us better understand the formation and evolution of solar and extrasolar planets.
BIO Dr. Eve J. Lee is an Assistant Professor and William Dawson Scholar in the Department of Physics at McGill, and a member of the Trottier Space Institute and the Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets. She leads a theoretical astrophysics group focusing on the formation of planets and stars. She received the 2022 Vainu Bappu Gold Medal by the Astronomical Society of India, and the 2022 Annie Jump Cannon Award by the American Astronomical Society (AAS), for which she gave a keynote lecture at the 2024 winter AAS meeting, in New Orleans, LA.
Meeting conducted at University of Virginia's McCormick Observatory starting at 7 pm. CAS members and non-members are all welcome.