Forming Planetesimals in Solar and Extrasolar Nebulae

The first step in planet formation is to build planetesimals from dust particles in protoplanetary disks. The origin and demographics of planetesimals are crucial to understanding the Solar System, exoplanetary systems, and circumstellar disks. In this talk, I will present our latest works on planetesimal formation via the streaming instability, a mechanism to aerodynamically concentrate dust particles and produce planetesimals. I will also discuss the implications and connections between our high-resolution simulation results and recent disk observations, as well as Solar System explorations.

Speaker: 
Rixin Li （UC Berkeley）
Place: 
KIAA-auditorium
Host: 
Lile Wang
Time: 
Thursday, June 6, 2024 - 3:30PM to Thursday, June 6, 2024 - 4:30PM
Biography: 
Dr. Rixin Li is a 51 Pegasi b Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. His research uses computational simulations to understand the evolution of dusty protoplanetary disks, the formation of planets therein, and the evolution of black holes embedded in AGN disks. Based on these calculations, he makes observable predictions to test the underlying theories. Dr. Li received his B.S. in Astronomy from Peking University, Ph.D. in Astronomy and Astrophysics from the University of Arizona, and was a postdoc at Cornell University.