Planet Formation Initiative
The TAP Planet Formation Initiative undertakes the study of theories of the formation and evolution of the Solar System and exoplanet systems.
Join the Planet Formation Mailing List
For meeting times and locations contact Planet Formation Initiative Leads Erik Asphaug and Andrew Youdin.
Upcoming Planet Formation Initiative Lectures
Spring 2026
Oryna Ivashtenko, Weizmann Institute of Science
Visit Dates: January 12-13, 2026
Origins Seminar / TAP Planet Formation Initiative Special Talk
January 12, 2026
Title: Reliable Detection of Small Long-period Planets in Kepler Data
Upcoming Planet Formation Initiative Computational Workshops
TAP Planet Formation Computational Workshops are scheduled for the Fall 2026 semester.
Fall 2025
Cristiano Longarini, Cambridge University
Visit Dates: Sep 28-Oct 10, 2025
Planet Formation Initiative Lectureship/Colloquium:
Oct 6, 2025
Title: The Role of Self-Gravity and Gravitational Instabilities in Protoplanetary Discs
David Minton, Purdue University
Visit Dates: Oct 19-24, 2025
Planet Formation Initiative Lectureship/Colloquium:
Oct 20, 2025
Title: Breaking Up is Hard to Do: Modeling Collisional Fragmentation During Planet and Satellite Formation
Fall 2023 to Spring 2025
Fred Adams, University of Michigan
Visit Dates: April 20 - 27, 2025
Lecture I: Origins Seminar & TAP Planet Formation Initiative Lecture
TITLE: Revisiting the Core Accretion Paradigm for Giant Planet Formation: Analytic Framework for the Late Infall Stage and the Distribution of Planetary Masses
Fred Adams, University of Michigan
Visit Dates: April 20 - 26, 2025
Lecture II: SO/NSF NOIRLab Joint Colloquium & TAP Planet Formation Initiative Lecture
TITLE: Effects of Clusters on their Constituent Planetary Systems
Nick Wogan, NASA Ames Research Center
Visit Dates: November 3 - 9, 2024
TITLE: The Photochemistry and Climate of Foreign Atmospheres: Implications for the Origin of Life on Early Earth and Understanding Exoplanets Observed by the James Webb Space Telescope
Kedron Silsbee, University of Texas at El Paso
Visit Dates: March 10 - 16, 2024
Title: Growth, Drift and Pile-up of Planetesimals in Binary Systems
No recording available.
Thaddeus Komacek, University of Maryland, College Park
Visit Dates: October 14 - 27, 2023
TITLE: Characterizing the Three-dimensional Nature of Hot Gas Giant Exoplanets in the Era of JWST
Affiliated Research Groups
Star and Planet Formation Theory Group
The Star and Planet Formation Theory group studies the origin and early evolution of stars, planets, and the disk out of which they form. Using analytic and computational techniques, we tackle astrophysical puzzles across 20 orders of magnitude in scale, encompassing everything from the physics of dust growth in protoplanetary disks to the collapse of magnetized, turbulent molecular clouds.
Planet Formation Lab
The Planet Formation Lab in the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory studies theories of the formation and evolution of the Solar System and exoplanet systems with an emphasis on the origin of geologic bodies including asteroids, comets, satellites, and terrestrial planets. The work is in part laboratory/exploration-based, focusing on discovered and measured physical properties of planetary bodies and meteorites, and in part computations-based, simulating the physics of regimes where laboratories cannot easily go, such as giant impacts in 3D. It is from such collisions that the terrestrial planets were born, and from which meteorites derive, so the research connects solar system dynamics with petrogenesis, including the study of planetary bodies and their samples.