Building Earth-like Planets From Gas and Dust to Ocean Worlds (2014)

Lecture by Linda Elkins-Tanton, Director of the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution

How do planets form and what makes them habitable? Where might life be found beyond our solar system? Linda Elkins-Tanton, an expert in planet formation and evolution, will discuss how violent impacts that are the “final act” of a planet’s creation may not always wipe out water and carbon from the early-growth period. Enough of these all-important elements may have existed to make many rocky planets and exoplanets habitable, increasing the likelihood that life might exist elsewhere among the Milky Way’s seventeen billion Earth-sized planets. - See more at: http://community.harvard.edu/events/building-earth-planets-gas-and-dust…