Exceptionally, the lecture takes place on Tuesdays.
Abstract
The complex structure of the Kuiper Belt suggests that the primordial disk of planetesimals was sculpted by irreversible orbital changes of the giant planets. Once the gas in the disk has dissipated, the planets must modify their orbits, dispersing the planetesimals in their vicinity. Neptune's outward migration during this process explains the formation of the resonant, hot populations of the dispersed disk, as well as its fossilized component. However, in this simplified scenario, planetary orbits remain too circular and coplanar. The Nice model arose from the search for a mechanism capable of increasing the eccentricities and inclinations of planetary orbits. Still based on migration induced by interaction with planetesimals, the first version of this model postulates the crossing of the 2:1 resonance between Jupiter and Saturn (which occurs when the ratio of the orbital periods of these two planets is equal to 2), thus triggering a dynamic instability of the planetary system.
