Workshop on Circumplanetary Disks
Twenty-eight NCCR PlanetS researchers representing six out of the seven research projects met on 7 June at the ETH in Zurich to discuss the properties of circumplanetary disks thought to exist around forming gas giant planets.
Many models for the formation of the largest satellites of the gas/ice giants in the Solar System assume such structures. Circumplanetary disks, as the cradles of moon formation, mimic in some ways the role of circumstellar disks in the formation of planetary systems. Such disks may also be responsible for determining the masses of forming gas giants and thus some aspects of the planetary mass function.
In the workshop http://nccr-planets.ch/event/circumplanetary-disk-workshop-planets-interproject-meeting/ cosmochemists, computational modelling experts, theorists, planetary scientists, and experimental astrophysicists shared ideas about circumplanetary disks, their role in planet formation, and prospects for their direct detection in forming planetary systems.
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