Date/Time
Date(s) - 29/03/2006
4:30 pm - 5:30 pm

Title: Rings in Resonance: The Kuiper Belt and Beyond

Speaker: Dr. Eugene Chiang

Institute: University of California, Berkeley

Location: ABB 102

Description:

The music of the spheres can be heard in resonant systems. The fixed gaze of the Moon, the commensurate orbital periods of the Galilean satellites, and the arms of grand-design spiral galaxies testify to how dynamical resonances organize the universe. We discuss how resonances have ordered our view of one of the newest frontiers of planetary science: the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt, that great expanse extending beyond the orbit of the last known planet in our solar system. This space is strewn with icy, rocky bodies of which Pluto is merely one (and not the largest) member and which occupy orbits of a formerly unimagined variety. We identify newly discovered populations of resonant objects in the Kuiper belt, including the new class of Neptune Trojans; describe how these objects inform our understanding of planetary migration and planetary accretion; and highlight unsolved problems. Connections are drawn between the Kuiper belt and extra-solar debris disks which afford glimpses of planetesimals at ages of 10–100 Myr. As a coda, we recount the mystery of the famously puzzling 1-Myr-old T Tauri star, KH 15D, and how its resolution provides yet another example of the power of resonance.