| | Astrophysics Colloquium: Kevin L. Luhman, PSU: "The Formation of Brown Dwarfs and Wide Planetary Companions" | |
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Speaker
| | Kevin L. Luhman |
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| | Date | | Sep 21, 2010 |
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| | Time | | 4:00 pm
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| | Location | | 134 Astronomy |
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| | Sponsor | | Astronomy Department |
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| | Contact | | You-Hua Chu |
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| | E-Mail | | yhchu@astro.illinois.edu |
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| | Phone | | 333-3090 |
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| | Event type | | Colloquia |
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| | Views | | 20140 |
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| Brown dwarfs have been discovered at progressively lower masses in recent years, reaching well into the mass regime of giant planets. Meanwhile, high-contrast imaging is beginning to uncover planetary-mass companions in very large orbits around stars and brown dwarfs. It is difficult for theories of star and planet formation to explain the
existence of both free-floating brown dwarfs and wide planetary companions. I will review recent observational and theoretical progress in understanding the origin of these objects. I will begin by describing the latest measurements of various properties of
brown dwarfs, including their initial mass function, binarity, circumstellar environment (disks, accretion, envelopes), and spatial and velocity distributions at birth, and I will compare these data to the predictions of theories for the formation of brown dwarfs. I will
then describe the observed properties of wide planetary-mass companions and the resulting constraints on their formation. |
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