MICHAEL , Ernest

The Planet Formation Imager (PFI) project aims to image the period of planet assembly directly, resolving structures as small as a giant planet's Hill sphere. These images will be required in order to determine the key mechanisms for planet formation at the time when processes of grain growth, protoplanet assembly, magnetic fields, disk/planet...

The Planet Formation Imager (PFI) Project has formed a Technical Working Group (TWG) to explore possible facility architectures to meet the primary PFI science goal of imaging planet formation in situ in nearby star- forming regions. The goals of being sensitive to dust emission on solar system scales and resolving the Hill-sphere around...

Despite recent advancements, many fundamental questions still surround the processes that are involved in planetary birth: Where in the protoplanetary disk do the planets form and how do they grow? What factors determine the final architecture of planetary systems? How are water and other volatiles delivered to the protoplanets and how does...