Formation of extrasolar planetary systems (Phil Armitage, University of Colorado)

Observations of extrasolar planetary systems have advanced to the point that we now have a direct census of ice and gas giants within about 5 AU of their parent stars, together with the first glimpses of the population of super-Earths. I will discuss the implications of these observations for our understanding of the formation and early evolution of planetary systems, and present predictions for the typical architecture of terrestrial planets. I will argue that the simplest interpretation of current observations suggests that terrestrial planets will exhibit the same diversity of dynamical properties as has already been seen among extrasolar giant planets.