Active Projects

Planet Population Synthesis is a statistical approach to study the conditions necessary for planet formation and evolution. We utilize the Bern model of planet formation and evolution (Alibert et al. 2013) within a population synthesis framework (Mordasini et al. 2009) to improve our understanding of key processes in planet formation, creating testable predictions in the process. more

Over a period of 6 years, DFG is funding research projects within its SPP framework (DFG-Schwerpunktprogramm) "Building a Habitable Earth". The SPP will contribute to the still open question how Earth became the only known habitable planet. more

Streaming instabilities are a result of sufficient dust densities and large relative flow velocities between dust and gas. This instability itself produces the turbulence that makes it possible to clump dust sufficiently together in order to become self-gravitating and thus overcome the meter-barrier in planet formation. This mechanism is thus of significant interest for the scientific community. more

A sufficiently massive planet will induce spiral arms, gap formation, migration and accretion shocks in his surrounding disk. We attempt to understand how all those processes backreact onto planetary formation and disk evolution. more

In order to link planetary population synthesis modells with observations, evolution calculations for single planets are needed. This is obvious as no planet is observed at an age of zero. We use atmospheric and structure modells planets, as well as atmospheric loss and bloating mechanisms for giant and rocky planets to develop our understanding of planetary populations. more