学术报告—Hot Jupiters and Super-Earths: Spin-Orbit Dynamics in Exoplanetary Systems

报告摘要：

He will discuss two topics on exoplanetary systems. The first concerns hot Jupiters, giant planets with orbital periods of a few days. Observations have revealed that many hot Jupiters have orbits that are highly misaligned with the rotation of their host stars. How did such large stellar obliquities come about? What do they inform about the formation of hot Jupiters? The second topic deals with planetary obliquity, which reflects the planet's dynamical history, and can strongly influence the atmosphere condition and climate of the planet. Many Sun-like stars are observed to host close-in super-Earths (or Earth-like planets) as part of a multi-planetary system. Can such super-Earths (or similar habitable planets around M stars) sustain significant obliquities?

报告人简介：

Dong Lai is Benson Jay and Mary Ellen Simon Professor at Cornell University and T.-D. Lee Chair Professor (Visiting) at T.-D. Lee Institute at SJTU. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Science and Technology of China. He studied theoretical physics at Cornell University, receiving Ph.D. in 1994.  He was the Richard C. Tolman Prize Fellow in theoretical astrophysics at Caltech, and joined the Cornell Astronomy faculty in 1997. He has received the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship and the Simons Fellowship. His current research is in theoretical/computational astrophysics, focusing on exoplanets, compact objects (neutron stars, black holes and white dwarfs), and astrophysical (particle, fluid and plasma) dynamics in general.