Cesar Fuentes

The central question driving my research is: Is life really that easy to form in the Universe? My approach to this problem has been to study the history of planet formation in our own Solar System and compare it with extrasolar planets and systems. I do this by measuring the statistical distribution and properties of small objects in the Solar System (comparing this to different models for the formation and evolution of the Solar System), studying exoplanets transiting their host stars, and the dynamical evolution and stability of planetary systems throughout their formation history. The areas I work in are time-domain astronomy, detection of moving objects, dynamics, and precision photometry, all within the context of the emergence of Big Data and new astronomical observatories like LSST.