This lecture was delivered in June 2011 by Ewine van Dishoeck, professor of Astronomy at Leiden University (Netherlands). In her talk, van Dishoeck explains how planets form from disks of gas and dust surrounding young stars. She details the physical and chemical processes through which atoms and molecules aggregate, collide, and grow into planetary bodies. The lecture also addresses the essential ingredients for life — such as water, carbon, and hydrogen — and how their evolution during the early stages of a solar system may determine the habitability of those worlds. Van Dishoeck compares theoretical models with recent observations of exoplanets and protoplanetary disks, highlighting how they mutually reinforce our understanding.
This lecture is part of the astrophysics series ‘The Science of the Cosmos, the Science in the Cosmos’, tackles the fundamental questions in contemporary a
This lecture was delivered in June 2011 by Ewine van Dishoeck, professor of Astronomy at Leiden University (Netherlands). In her talk, van Dishoeck explains how planets form from disks of gas and dust surrounding young stars. She details the physical and chemical processes through which atoms and molecules aggregate, collide, and grow into planetary bodies. The lecture also addresses the essential ingredients for life — such as water, carbon, and hydrogen — and how their evolution during the early stages of a solar system may determine the habitability of those worlds. Van Dishoeck compares theoretical models with recent observations of exoplanets and protoplanetary disks, highlighting how they mutually reinforce our understanding.
This lecture is part of the astrophysics series ‘The Science of the Cosmos, the Science in the Cosmos’, tackles the fundamental questions in contemporary astrophysics.Why, at some point some 13 billion years ago, did a tiny, hot universe begin expanding in a Big Bang? The birth of the universe, as well as the formation of stars and planets, are explored in the first edition.
