28 January: Thomas Haworth

Speaker: Thomas Haworth (Queen Mary University of London)

Date: Wednesday 28 January 2026

Time: 15:00

Location: Physics 3.27

The impact of environment on protoplanetary disks and planet formation

There is growing evidence that planet-forming disks around young stars can be affected by their wider star forming environment. This environmental impact takes many forms, from chemical inheritance, to gravitational encounters, "late" infall from molecular clouds and external photoevaporation by radiation from massive stars. Collectively, interest in the environmental impact on discs/planet formation has exploded in recent years. I will provide an introduction to these environmental processes and how they interplay. I will then focus in particular on external photoevaporation and the impact that that may have on the properties of exoplanets.