March 5, 2024

Speaker: Mike Brown (Caltech)

Contact Information: mbrown@caltech.edu

Title:  Planet Nine from Outer Space

Abstract:

 Astronomers have been predicting and searching for planets beyond Neptune for almost 180 years. In all previous cases the predictions were based on bad data, bad physics, or both, and the predictions turned out to be wrong. In 2016, we joined this  inglorious group and declared that orbital alignments of the most distant objects in the solar system demand the presence of a distant giant planet on an eccentric and inclined orbit. I'll describe the mounting evidence for this planet, discuss the counter-proposals, and talk about the ongoing search for what would be the fifth largest planet of our solar system.

Visitor's room: 127

Visit Schedule:

Tuesday (March 5, 2024):

• 9:30 a.m.: Allen Foster (Visitor's office)

• 10:00 a.m:  Akash Gupta (Peyton 110)

• 10:30 a.m.: 

• 11:00 a.m.: Colloquium 

• 11:30 a.m.: Colloquium 

• 12:00 p.m.: Bahcall lunch

• 12:30 p.m.: Bahcall lunch

• 1:00 p.m.: Bahcall lunch

• 1:30 p.m.:  Michael Strauss (Peyton 113)

• 2:00 p.m.: Yubo Su

• 2:30 p.m.: Josh Winn (Peyton 125)

• 3:00 p.m.: Tea Time with Grad Students in Grand Central 

• 3:30 p.m.: Tea Time with Grad Students in Grand Central 

• 4:00 p.m.: Caleb Lammers

• 4:30 p.m.: Gaspar Bakos

• 5:00 p.m.: Amir Siraj 

Dinner Sign-up - add your name here:

Tuesday (March 5, 2024)

1. Faculty Host: Jeremy Goodman

2. Postdoc Host: Allen Foster

3.  Mike Brown 

4. Amir Siraj

5. Akash Gupta

6. Caleb Lammers

7. Justin Myles

8. Josh Winn

STUDENTS HAVE PRIORITY.

PLEASE NO MORE THAN 8 PEOPLE (it is more difficult to properly interact with the speaker in larger groups).