“Peering into the Birthplaces of Planets”

About

On
June 12, 2025, at 7:00 PM, ET, Hamptons Observatory and co-host
Suffolk County Community College will present a free virtual lecture
by Dr. Jane Huang from the Department of Astronomy at Columbia
University. She will lead us on a journey, “Peering into the
Birthplaces of Planets,” and help us understand what we know about
planet formation and how our own planet Earth came to be.
Registration is required for this free, virtual lecture. Go to:
https://bit.ly/PlanetaryTalk

Astronomers
have discovered thousands of planets outside of the Solar System.
Many of these planets have properties that are drastically different
from the eight in our Solar System. To understand the diversity of
planetary properties and ultimately answer the question of how our
own planet came to be, we must study the conditions under which
planets form. Planets are born in protoplanetary disks, which consist
of gas, dust, and ice orbiting very young stars. Recent
observations of disks with telescopes such as the Atacama Large
Millimeter/Sub-millimeter Array, the Very Large Telescope, and the
James Webb Space Telescope are playing a critical role in unveiling
the chemistry and physics of planet formation. Dr. Huang will discuss
their key discoveries as well as some of the mysteries of planet
formation that remain open.

Dr.
Jane Huang
is an assistant professor of astronomy at Columbia University. She
received her PhD in astronomy & astrophysics from Harvard
University. Before arriving at Columbia, she conducted research at
University of Michigan as a postdoctoral scholar with funding from
the NASA Hubble Fellowship Program. Her
work centers on observing protoplanetary disks, especially with ALMA,
in order to elucidate how planets form. Specific interests include
the influence of environment on planet formation, the chemical
evolution of disks and its link to exoplanet atmospheres, and the
demographics of protoplanets.

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