Abstract:
To discover planets beyond our solar system is the dream of human being. To date, more than 500 exoplanets are detected, mainly through detecting the radial velocity wobbles of the host stars around their planet-star mass centers. Up to 14 planets are directly imaged. The detection of new planet systems greatly excited the research on the formation theory of planets. In this presentation, first I will brief summarize the statistical properties of the detected exoplanets, then review the formation theory of the planet systems, with main emphasis on the major difficulties to explain the fruitful observations. Some recent progresses are also reported, including the future large telescope programs aiming at planet detection.
Coffee and tea will be served 20 minutes prior to the seminar