Star and Planet Formation

36h of lectures, 6 ECTS

Head: Jean-François Gonzalez (Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1)

This course will tackle the main points of the formation of stars and of planetary systems in two parts of equal duration. The star formation part will treat the stability of clouds in equilibrium, the collapse of dense cores, proto-stars and their evolution, and the impact of young stars on their environment. The planet formation part will draw upon the constraints form the solar system and the detection of extrasolar planets to address the structure and evolution of protoplanetary disks, and the formation of terrestrial and giant planets.

Goals:

This course will bring the theoretical knowledge necessary to the understanding of the prestesses of star and planet formation, with a link to the most recent observational constraints and numerical simulations. It will prepare the students to research work in this area through multiple methods.

Contents:

  1. Introduction to star formation
  2. Molecular clouds
  3. Gravitational collapse
  4. Protostellar disk formation
  5. Pre-main sequence stars
  6. Massive star formation
  7. Consequences and by-products
  8. Introduction to planet formation
  9. Disk structure
  10. Disk evolution
  11. Disk observations
  12. Planetesimal formation
  13. Terrestrial planet formation
  14. Giant planet formation
  15. Extrasolar systems and new perspective on planet formation