Dr. John Chambers
DTM, Carnegie Inst. of Washington

University of Florida Astronomy Colloquium - Sept. 19th, 2007

Oligarchic Growth and Migration during Planet Formation

Many of the characteristics of a planetary system are shaped during the oligarchic growth stage of planet formation. This begins when solid bodies in a protoplanetary disk reach the size of large asteroids. Oligarchic growth in the Solar System ended with lunar-to-Mars-size bodies in the terrestrial-planet region and roughly ten-Earth-mass cores in the giant-planet region. Current analytic theories and numerical simulations suggest such bodies will undergo rapid inward orbital migration due to tidal interactions with gas in the disk. In this talk, I will examine how planets might grow and survive oligarchic growth in the presence of migration, and look at the variety of planetary systems that may be produced as a result of these processes.