Changing paradigms in planet formation theory

ABSTRACT

Questions about the origins of Earth have forever accompanied humans. The classical theory of planet formation, established when the Solar System was the only one we knew, has been recently challenged and is undergoing major changes. In this talk, I will explain how the growing population of planets orbiting stars other than the Sun triggered the revision of this classical theory. I will pay special attention to the early stages of planet formation when dust grains grow to pebbles and the first gravitationally bound building blocks of planets, the planetesimals, form.