The Astrophysics Podcast

Author: Paul Duffell

Once a month, Purdue University's Professor Paul Duffell discusses astronomy and astrophysics with experts from around the world. Duffell and guests discuss supernovae, galaxies, planets, black holes, and the nature of space and time.Supported by the National Science Foundation under grant AAG-2206299.Music by Brittain Ashford.Produced in beautiful Lafayette, Indiana by Paul Duffell.Follow us on BlueSky!
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Language: en

Genres: Astronomy, Physics, Science

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Dr. Kaitlin Kratter -- Building a Solar System on the Computer
Episode 12
Sunday, 30 November, 2025

How did our solar system form? More generally, how does any solar system form? We get some of our answers to these questions by looking at newly-forming planetary systems in the first million years of their lives. But getting a complete picture also requires a lot of theoretical work, understanding each stage of solar system formation, which often entails big computational models of the early solar system. Dr. Kaitlin Kratter is a leader in the practice of building these big models and using them to improve our understanding of how the planets first formed.