Presented by Katherine Rosenfeld, Laura Schaefer, Anjali Tripathi

For millennia, our understanding of Earth came from our own experiences on the planet. Today, with the ability to observe other planets in the Solar System and planets around other stars, we have a better sense of our place in the Universe and how the Earth formed and evolved. This evening’s lecture will begin with current knowledge of planet formation and exciting new observations of systems beyond our Solar System. We will then talk about what meteorites tell us about the formation of planets in our own Solar System and the stages of atmosphere formation on the Earth. Lastly, we shall think about the Earth as a planet – features that are specific to Earth and the Solar System, and how that compares to planets throughout the Universe.