<a href="http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/events/colloquia/">http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/events/colloquia/</a><br><div class="gmail_quote"><br> "Crucial Dynamical Phases in Solar System Formation"<br><br> Alessandro Morbidelli
<br> Observatory of Nice (France)<br><br> Thursday January 24, 2008<br> 4:00 p.m.<br> (tea at 3:30)<br><br> Philips Auditorium<br> Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
<br> 60 Garden Street, Cambridge<br><br>Abstract: The formation and evolution of the giant planets of our Solar<br>System presents several problems: the cores of the planets should have<br>been driven into the Sun by Type I migration, faster than they could
<br>accrete their massive gaseous atmosphere; once formed, Jupiter and Saturn<br>should have suffered Type-II migration towards the Sun, becoming hot or<br>warm giants, like most of the extra-solar planets known so far; the
<br>planets most likely underwent a late reorganization of their orbital<br>architecture, as indicated by the Late Heavy Bombardment (LHB) of the<br>Moon, which suggests that a massive reservoir of small bodies suddenly<br>
became unstable. Without pretension of providing any definitive answer, I<br>will present a scenario of the formation and evolution of the giant<br>planets that addresses these problems. More specifically I will present<br>
simulations of the dynamics of planetary cores in the vicinity of a<br>"planet trap," which can exist at the transition between the active and<br>the dead zones of the disk. I will illustrate how the dynamics of the
<br>fully formed planets in the gas disk leads to one of 6 possible mutual<br>configurations, that are stable and avoid significant migration towards<br>the Sun. Finally I will describe our model for the origin of the LHB and
<br>how it connects with some of these mutual stable configurations.<br><br></div><br><br>