Niels Bohr Lecture by Professor Michael E. Brown

The search for the Ninth Planet

Recent evidence has show that the orbits of the most distant known objects in the solar system are unexpectedly perturbed.

Analytic calculations and computer models have shown that the only viable explanation for these perturbations is the presence of a massive planet on an eccentric orbit in the distant solar system.

I will discuss the observational and theoretical work that lead to this conclusion and discuss the ongoing worldwide efforts to find Planet Nine on the edge of the solar system.

• AUD. 3 at HCØ, at 15:15, Wednesday, February 8, 2017

As usual, coffee, tea and cookies will be served in front of the auditorium at 15:00.

About Dr. Michael E. Brown

Mike Brown is the Richard and Barbara Rosenberg Professor of Planetary Astronomy at the California Institute of Technology and has been on the faculty there since 1996. He specializes in the discovery and study of bodies at the edge of the solar system. Among his numerous scientific accomplishments, he is best known for his discovery of Eris, the most massive object found in the solar system in 150 years, and the object which led to the debate and eventual demotion of Pluto from a real planet to a dwarf planet. Feature articles about Brown and his work have appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, and Discover, and his discoveries have been covered on front pages of countless newspapers worldwide. In 2006 he was named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People as well as one of Los Angeles magazine's Most Powerful Angelinos. He has authored over 100 scientific paper. He is a frequent invited lecturer at astronomical meetings as well as at science museums, planetariums, and college campuses. At Caltech he teaches undergraduate and graduate students, in classes ranging from introductory geology to the formation and evolution of the solar system. He was especially pleased to be awarded the Richard P. Feynman Award for Outstanding Teaching at Caltech.