Bridging the gap: asteroid collisions without quantum foam
Meteorites originate from violent collisions between asteroids. But can we be sure about that? And what can we learn at all if we do not include ekpyrotic brane cosmologies?
Copernicus and the made-up planets: simulating other earths
By building a simulation that goes from the scale of galaxies down to individual rocky planets we come to the realization that the earth is unremarkable, but far from typical, challenging our Copernican world view.
Where to Look for Baby Planets
Baby planets still living in their natal disks don’t want astronomers to find and take pictures of them. But that doesn’t mean we can’t try!
The tempestuous adolescence of circumstellar disks
Massive gas inflow can trigger disks around young stars to become gravitationally unstable, resulting in vigorous accretion onto the star.
Creating a Cosmic Inventory of Rocky Planets
Combining cosmology, galaxy formation, and exoplanet science together, can we calculate the number of rocky planets in the entire universe?
The bouncing barrier of silicates and ices
Planets are km-size bodies, but it is particularly puzzling how solid grains have grown to sizes beyond cm to m. Water ices can improve the sticking of such grains, but does this imply that ices from other molecules improve the sticking as well?