Comets and the Origin and Evolution of the Solar System

Monday, February 4, 2013 at 4:00pm

Rockefeller Hall, Schwartz Auditorium Central Campus

Thomas Gold Lectures - David Jewitt, UCLA. Refreshments at 3:30pm.

Abstract: Most comets are ice-containing bodies stored in one of two distant reservoirs (the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud) since the formation of the Solar system. I will provide an accessible and sweeping overview of the current understanding of comets, of their storage reservoirs, and of their importance for understanding the formation and evolution of the Solar system.