Scientific Colloquium
May 27, 2005

THE JOHN C. LINDSAY MEMORIAL LECTURE


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.