This event is free and open to the public thanks to support from the WiCOR Lecture Fund.

Title: Planet 9 From Outer Space

Abstract:

Over the past two decades, surveys of the outer Solar System have revealed a remarkably complex Kuiper Belt. Most of this structure can be understood through the gravitational influence of the known planets, particularly Neptune. Yet the most distant trans-Neptunian objects present several enduring puzzles: some follow elongated orbits that cluster together and remain detached from Neptune, while others occupy highly inclined or even retrograde trajectories that are difficult to produce within conventional models of Solar System evolution.

Taken together, these peculiar orbital patterns may point to the presence of an additional, as-yet-undetected planet. This object — Planet Nine — is predicted to have roughly five times the mass of Earth and to travel around the Sun on a distant, eccentric orbit with a period of approximately ten thousand years. In this talk, I will review the observational evidence that motivated the Planet Nine hypothesis, explain the dynamical mechanisms by which such a planet could sculpt the distant Solar System, and discuss current observational efforts and the prospects for its detection.

Speaker Bio:

Professor Konstantin Batygin is a theoretical astrophysicist whose research explores the formation and evolution of planetary systems over their full lifetimes. He also studies exoplanets and the physical processes that shape planetary interiors and atmospheres. Batygin received his bachelor’s degree in astrophysics from UC Santa Cruz in 2008 and pursued his graduate studies at Caltech. After holding a prize postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University, he joined the Caltech faculty in 2014. He has been the recipient of numerous awards, including a Sloan Research Fellowship, a Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering, and, most recently, the inaugural Ginsburg Prize. He was also named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list and, unlike a surprising number of his fellow honorees, has not yet been indicted. In his free time, he moonlights as a singer and guitarist for the rock band The Seventh Season.

https://www.konstantinbatygin.com

Event Details

Directions:

The Discovery Building is located at 330 N. Orchard St, Madison, WI 53715.  The H.F. DeLuca Forum is in the center of the ground floor. Utilize this campus map to find the Discovery Building, and select the “Public Parking” filter to find nearby parking options: https://maps.wisc.edu/s/gwh8nal7

Accommodations:

WiCOR is committed to creating an inclusive and accessible event. If you need a reasonable accommodation, please contact Vanessa Orr, WiCOR Administrative Manager, at wicor@wisc.edu. All requests must be made by Sept 8. We will attempt to implement late requests but cannot guarantee they will be met.