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Astronomy Colloquium
Watch Giant Worlds Form and Grow — A Direct Imaging Perspective
Date: Thursday, November 21st
Time: 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm
Place: 4421 Sterling Hall
Speaker: Yifan Zhou, University of Virginia
Abstract: Recent advances have greatly enhanced our understanding of gas giant planet formation and evolution, with discoveries spanning the onset of formation in protoplanetary disks, direct detections of gas accretion, and constraints on the thermal, dynamical, and atmospheric evolution of gas giants. These findings provide crucial insights into the mechanisms underlying the formation of giant planets and the ways these planets impact the formation environment and the broader planetary systems.

This talk will review key direct imaging observations of young gas giant systems, focusing on the identification of protoplanets, the monitoring of accretion onto young planets, and the empirical constraints of the thermal and angular momentum properties of giant planets. Using the PDS 70 system, the only known planetary systems with two actively accreting planets, as a case study, I will illustrate how time-domain, high-contrast imaging can reveal critical details of gas giant formation. I will also highlight ongoing and upcoming James Webb Space Telescope programs that promise transformative insights into the mass growth and early evolution of giant planets.
Host: Melinda Soares-Furtado
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