Noted Astrophysicist Alan Boss to Speak at Embry-Riddle

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Famed Astrophysicist Alan Boss to Present New Theory on Planet Formation at Embry-Riddle

Daytona Beach, Fla., Oct. 15, 2008 -- In the last decade, more than 300 planets outside our solar system have been detected, some orbiting nearby stars, others hovering alone in space. Many of these new finds have called into question the accepted theories on planet and star formation.

A world-recognized expert on planet formation, Dr. Alan Boss, notes that nearly all of the new planets appear to be gas giant planets, similar to our Jupiter and Saturn.

“Previously, most astrophysicists explained the formation of gas giant planets using the core-accretion model,” said Dr. Boss. “In this theory, collisions between small bodies of ice and rock form a solid planetary core. Later, the core gains a gaseous atmosphere from the nebular disk and the planet grows to its final size. The problem is that the core-accretion process in this model takes millions of years—and these planets are simply not old enough to fit that model.”

Taking a new tack, Boss has developed various disk-instability models in which gravitational volatility in the nebular disk causes gas and dust to break up into clumps, some of which contract into a core and quickly grow into a giant gaseous planet. In this model, it takes only a thousand years or so for a protoplanet to form.

On Friday, Oct. 24, at 4 p.m., Dr. Boss will elaborate on his ideas in a talk titled “The Crowded Universe: The Search for Living Planets,” scheduled for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Willie Miller Instructional Center, Room 104. Free and open to the public, this lecture by Dr. Boss is offered by the Physical Sciences Department at Embry-Riddle as part of its Star and Planet Formation conference.

Dr. Boss is a member of the NASA External Independent Readiness Board for the Navigator Program, which is charged with overseeing all NASA missions leading to the detection and characterization of habitable Earth-like planets. NASA has planned an array of ground- and space-based telescopes that will carry out this wide-ranging search in the next two decades.

Dr. Boss is a professor in the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism at the Carnegie Institution of Washington. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Geophysical Union, and the Meteoritical Society.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the world’s largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, offers more than 30 degree programs in its colleges of Arts and Sciences, Aviation, Business, and Engineering. The university educates more than 34,000 students annually in undergraduate and graduate programs, with accreditation pending for Embry-Riddle’s first doctoral programs, in Aviation and in Engineering Physics. Embry-Riddle educates students at residential campuses in Prescott, Ariz., and Daytona Beach, Fla., through the Worldwide Campus at more than 130 campus centers in the United States, Europe, Canada, and the Middle East, and through online learning. For more information, visit www.embryriddle.edu.