Prof. Boris Gänsicke (University of Warwick)

Evolved planetary systems around white dwarfs

Many of the known planets - in the solar system Mars and beyond - will survive the post main-sequence evolution of their host stars into white dwarfs. Later interactions  scatter asteroids, moons, and possibly entire planets deep into the gravitational potential of the white dwarf, where they are disrupted, and eventually accreted. I will review the rich observational evidence for evolved planetary systems at white dwarfs, and discuss how the study of these systems can inform us on the conditions and the efficiency of planet formation, and on the architectures of outer planetary systems inaccessible to direct detections.

Schedule

11:00 - 12:00 Tuesday 2 July 2019, Faraday Lecture Theatre

About the speaker

Boris Gänsicke is a professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Warwick, where he was involved in setting up the Astronomy and Astrophysics group. Boris is an astrophysicist interested in the formation, evolution, and demise of stars and their planetary systems. His scientific contributions include model atmospheres for neutron stars, observational population studies of close binary stars, and  measuring the bulk abundances of exo-asteroids, and he has been supported by an ERC Advanced Grant. He is leading surveys within the DESI, WEAVE and SDSS-V collaborations that will obtain follow-up spectroscopy of several 100.000 white dwarfs and nearby stars identified with Gaia, transforming our insight into the current and past stellar and planetary populations in the solar neighbourhood.