A shortened version of a planetarium show that I helped to produce as part of a collaboration led by the California Academy of Sciences. The short is named “Simulating Solar System Formation” and features one of my planetesimal formation simulations (affiliation is out of date). The full length planetarium show is titled “Incoming!” and is narrated by George Takei.

Evolution of the streaming instability in a 3D local disk patch (x direction is radial, y direction is azimuthal) The movie shows particle surface density. As the instability progresses, radial filaments form, which eventually give birth to gravitationally bound planetesimals. From Simon et al. (2017).

Evolution of the streaming instability in a 3D local disk patch during a stage at which the streaming instability (SI) has produced sufficiently dense filaments that gravitational collapse ensues. The movie on the left shows the vertical gas velocity, and the composite movie on the right shows the particles (green points elevated) and the particle surface density at the mid-plane (blue-green). Credit: Rixin Li. From Li et al. (2018, 2019).

In this simulation, particles drift toward the star and encounter a pressure bump (centered on x = 0, but due to the background pressure gradient, the point of minimum drift is around x = -1.2H). The particles slow down as they enter the minimum drift point, which causes their local density to increase, pushing them into the regime of being unstable to the streaming instability. Planetesimal formation follows soon thereafter. From Carrera et al. (2021)

Evolution of a magnetized gas in a local, disk patch subject to the magnetorotational instability. The system is violently unstable, unleashing considerable turbulence on the disk gas. The gas density is first shown, followed by the magnetic field strength. The movie represents a small, co-rotating patch of the disk.

Toroidal (left) and poloidal (right) magnetic field intensity for the Hall-shear Instability in a low-ionization planet-forming disk. The movie represents a small, co-rotating patch of the disk. This is part of David Rea's thesis work.

Evolution of a self-gravitating disk, where the disk mass is 0.25 times the stellar mass. The simulation was done using an SPH code and was carried out by Duncan Forgan. From Forgan et al. (2012).

Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability in 3D, part of a project done by my former graduate student, Greg Salvesen. The 3D density rendering was created by Sam Skillman. The first movie shows gas density, and the second movie shows magnetic field strength. The very end includes a 2D version of the same instability. From Salvesen et al. (2014).

Rayleigh-Taylor Instability in 3D. The contours represent gas density. This movie was created as part of the test suite for the Athena gas dynamics code.

Evolution of a dense cloud moving supersonically through a low density region (in a frame moving at the original speed of the cloud). A bow shock results, along with the deformation of the dense cloud. Gas density is shown. This movie was created as part of the test suite for the Athena gas dynamics code.