When Protoplanetary Disks Start Throwing Things : Guest : Naman Bajaj

About this episode

Naman Bajaj discusses the formation of protoplanetary disks and their mass loss during the creation of solar systems.

There are 1.5 million freshly minted engineers in India every year. One of them, this week's guest Naman Bajaj, said, "well, I guess they've got enough of those," changed course, became an astronomer, scored an insane amount of time on JWST (that, in itself, is amazing - which totally rocked Kovi's and Benjamin's minds), and found that protoplanetary disks - baby solar systems - lose 85-90% of their original mass by the time they're done forming. They do so in tremendous, huge jets - some of which, in turn, spark the beginnings of other baby solar systems. Follow us everywhere! Find Benjamin at Science, Actually : https://www.scienceactually.com/ & https://www.facebook.com/actuallyscience Find Kovi at Fun Fact Science : https://www.funfactscience.com/ & https://www.facebook.com/funfactscience Find Naman here https://lpl.arizona.edu/graduate/students/naman-bajaj

People in this episode

Guest: Naman Bajaj

Topics covered

• astronomy
• protoplanetary disks
• solar system formation
• JWST
• engineering
• mass loss

Keywords

• protoplanetary disks
• JWST
• solar system
• mass loss
• astronomy
• Naman Bajaj
• India
• engineering

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: JWST

Places: India, protoplanetary disks, baby solar systems

More episodes of Science, Actually Presents : The Nerd and the Scientist

• Your Friendly Neighborhood Spiderdoctor : Guest : Anastasia Shavrova · June 11, 2026 · 1h 19m
• Around The World In 90 Minutes : Guest : Rex Walheim · May 28, 2026 · 1h 18m
• I've Got 55 Problems and Books Are All of Them : Guest : Jennifer Swanson · May 14, 2026 · 1h 10m
• Amaze! Amaze! Amaze! · April 30, 2026 · 59 min
• Floating Nutella : Artemis II · April 16, 2026 · 54 min
• Fellowship of the Sciences : Guest : Zoe Xirocostas · April 3, 2026 · 60 min