July 25, 2025 8-10 PM

Event Type: Lecture and Stargazing
Title: How to Build a Solar System
Lecturer: Adolfo Carvalho
Position: PhD Candidate
Institution: Caltech
Abstract:
Since the discovery of 51 Pegasi b in 1995, we have found over 5,000 planets beyond our Solar System, orbiting other stars in our Milky Way galaxy. Most of these planetary systems are quite different from our own Solar System in their masses, sizes, and orbits. As we catalog these many different planetary systems, we can identify how planets form and change over time, which may help us understand the processes at play in our own Solar System. I will discuss how we currently believe our Solar System formed, from a humble cloud of dust in the Milky Way nearly 5 billion years ago into the Sun and planets we know and love today.