News Overview

We congratulate our member Hubert Klahr, head of the theory group in the Planet & Star Formation department at Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) and principal investigator of STRUCTURES' Comprehensive Project 2 (From Dust to Planets), on securing one of the Eu­ro­pean Re­search Council's prestigious Advanced Grants. The prize, endowed with 2.49 million euros funding over the next five years, will support his pioneering project “Turbulence, Pebbles, and Planetesimals: Origin of Minor Bodies in the Solar System (TiPPi).”

The TiPPi project aims to unravel the mysteries surrounding the formation of minor celestial bodies, such as asteroids, comets and dwarf planets in the solar system. Most of these smaller bodies are presumed to be remnants of planetary building blocks known as planetesimals, typically ranging from a few dozen kilometres in diameter. These planetesimals formed through collisions and the accumulation of centimetre-sized chunks, referred to as 'pebbles'. Pebbles typically measure in the centimetre to decimetre range, while planetesimals range from 10 to 100 kilometres in diameter. However, “despite their immense importance for the early history of the Solar System and therefore also for the formation of the Earth, we still don’t know where and when they formed in the ‘solar nebula’,” says Hubert Klahr. “We will therefore develop an innovative numerical experiment that combines three phases of planetesimal formation. We will use special methods to study turbulence, apply ma­chine learning to analyse pebble sizes and dust opacities, and investigate the elasticity and porosity evolution of the forming planetesimals.” The re­search not only promises insights into the early history of our solar system but also offers connections to the diversity of exoplanetary systems. The techniques and tools developed will be beneficial to the broader scientific community.

The ERC Advanced Grant is one of the most esteemed and competitive re­search grants in Europe, awarded to exceptional senior researchers with the potential to catalyze significant scientific advancements. Out of 1829 applications, only 255 outstanding re­search leaders in Europe are selected for this prestigious honour.

Further information:

• Hubert Klahr's Website
• Max Planck Institute for Astronomy
• Eu­ro­pean Re­search Council (ERC)