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SUMMARY:When worlds collide: debris from terrestrial planet formation - Al
 an Jackson (IoA)
DTSTART:20120530T124500Z
DTEND:20120530T131500Z
UID:TALK37647@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Ryan Cooke
DESCRIPTION:A common element in current theories of terrestrial planet for
 mation is the prediction that the final stage in building terrestrial plan
 ets \ninvolves giant impacts between massive planetary embryos thousands o
 f kilometres in diameter.  Indeed a number of peculiarities about each of 
 the terrestrial planets in our Solar system can be explained as a result o
 f giant impacts like these\, including the existence of our own Moon.  In 
 addition to forming terrestrial planets these giant impacts also produce c
 opious amounts of debris\, but thus far this debris has been poorly studie
 d.  We investigate debris production in the context of the Moon-forming co
 llision\, as the most well constrained example of a giant impact\, and sho
 w that the debris forms a bright disk around the Sun that\, around another
  nearby star\, could be detectable for tens-of-millions of years by typica
 l near infrared surveys.  As such we expect systems undergoing terrestrial
  planet formation to possess detectable dust throughout the planet formati
 on period and use this to analyse the frequency of terrestrial planet form
 ation.
LOCATION:Sackler Lecture Theatre\, IoA
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