Scientific Colloquium
May 27, 2005
THE JOHN C. LINDSAY
MEMORIAL
LECTURE
FRANK SHU
NATIONAL TSING HUA
UNIVERSITY
TAIWAN
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"The Formation of Stars and
Planetary Systems"
In
this talk I will review the history of scientific ideas concerning the
origin
of the solar system, and I will update the topic from the perspective
of
modern theories and observations of the formation of stars and planetary
systems.
A major surprise from investigations of the past two decades is
the
realization that the birth processes of stars and planets are much more
violent and dynamic than have been previously imagined.
Swirling
disks of gas and dust
condense into stars,
but
they may also bring an inspiral and early demise of many nascent
planets.
In their interactions with the strongly magnetized central stars,
such
disks may also generate powerful jets of gas that spew a rain of molten
rock
throughout interplanetary space, which later become incorporated as the
chondrules
of chondritic meteorites.
We end
with a discussion of the consequences for the types of stars and
planetary
systems that result from this activity.