Hosting Professor Sylvio Ferraz-Mello, PhD, World-Renowned Specialist in Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy

As part of the series SASA Guest, the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts will have the honour of hosting Professor Sylvio Ferraz Mello, one of the leading world experts in the fields of Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy.  He will give a lecture titled ’The Rotation of Exoplanets in the Potentially Habitable Zone of Solar-Тype Stars’ on Friday, 17 April, at the SASA Grand Hall, at noon.

Scholars have been studying the rotation of exoplanets in the potentially habitable zones (PHZ) of solar-type stars, since rotation influences a planet’s climate and habitability. The planets in compact systems frequently enter synchronous rotation with orbital motion due to the action of tidal forces; however, this is not always the case for planets orbiting Sun-like stars. In our Solar System, for example, Mercury has a rotation period shorter than its orbital period, while Venus, unlike other planets in the Solar System, has a retrograde rotation, that is, it rotates clockwise.

Similarly, exoplanets in the PHZ may develop retrograde rotation due to the process of forming an atmosphere and torques acting in the opposite direction to the tidal force. The formation of a planetary atmosphere is a gradual process, so the reversal of a planet’s rotation is a natural event. This means that retrograde rotation can occur without collisions with other bodies or major disruptions, and it has probably already occurred in several known exoplanets in the (PHZ) of solar-type stars.

Professor Sylvio Ferraz-Mello, PhD, is Professor Emeritus at the University of São Paulo (Brazil) and former Editor-in-Chief of the leading international journal Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy (Springer). He is the recipient of the prestigious Brouwer Award of the American Astronomical Society, former President of the International Astronomical Union Commission for Celestial Mechanics, and a Full Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and the Latin American Academy of Sciences, as well as a Corresponding Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Zaragoza. According to Google Scholar, he is the author of several books and more than 400 papers, with approximately 10,000 citations (h-index 50).

The lecture will be held in English.