astronomy

Nienke van der Marel

Nienke van der Marel is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Nienke van der Marel rather than just read about it. In short: Nienke van der Marel (born 1986) is a Dutch astronomer whose research focuses on the formation of exoplanets through interplanetary dust trapping and protoplanetary disks. She is an assistant professor in the Leiden Observatory of Leiden University.

Key takeaways

Nienke van der Marel belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Nienke van der Marel to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Nienke van der Marel from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Nienke van der Marel (born 1986) is a Dutch astronomer whose research focuses on the formation of exoplanets through interplanetary dust trapping and protoplanetary disks. She is an assistant professor in the Leiden Observatory of Leiden University.

Education and career Van der Marel was born in Groningen in 1986. She was educated through the Leiden Observatory, receiving her bachelor's degree in physics and astronomy in 2009, her master's degree in 2011, and her Ph.D. in 2015. Her doctoral dissertation, Mind the gap: gas and dust in planet-forming disks, was supervised by Ewine van Dishoeck. She did postdoctoral research as a Beatrice Watson Parrent Fellow at the University of Hawaii from 2015 to 2017, as an NRC Research fellow at the NRC Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre in Victoria, Canada from 2017 to 2019, and as a Banting Fellow at the University of Victoria in Canada from 2019 to 2021. In 2021 she returned to the Leiden Observatory as an assistant professor.

Recognition Van der Marel was a 2024 recipient of the New Horizons in Physics Prize, with her coauthors Laura M. Pérez, Paola Pinilla, and Til Birnstiel, given "for the prediction, discovery, and modeling of dust traps in young circumstellar disks, solving a long-standing problem in planet formation". Minor planet 12942 van der Marel is named for van der Marel.

Selected publications van der Marel, Nienke; van Dishoeck, Ewine F.; Bruderer, Simon; Birnstiel, Til; Pinilla, Paola; Dullemond, Cornelis P.; van Kempen, Tim A.; Schmalzl, Markus; Brown, Joanna M.; Herczeg, Gregory J.; Mathews, Geoffrey S.; Geers, Vincent (June 2013), "A major asymmetric dust trap in a transition disk", Science, 340 (6137): 1199–1202, arXiv:1306.1768, Bibcode:2013Sci...340.1199V, doi:10.1126/science.1236770, JSTOR 41985457, PMID 23744942 van der Marel, N.; van Dishoeck, E. F.; Bruderer, S.; Andrews, S. M.; Pontoppidan, K. M.; Herczeg, G. J.; van Kempen, T.; Miotello, A. (2016), "Resolved gas cavities in transitional disks inferred from CO isotopologs with ALMA", Astronomy & Astrophysics, 585 A58, arXiv:1511.07149, Bibcode:2016A&A...585A..58V, doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201526988 van der Marel, Nienke; Williams, Jonathan P.; Ansdell, M.; Manara, Carlo F.; Miotello, Anna; Tazzari, Marco; Testi, Leonardo; Hogerheijde, Michiel; Bruderer, Simon; Terwisga, Sierk E. van; Dishoeck, Ewine F. van (February 2018), "New insights into the nature of transition disks from a complete disk survey of the Lupus star-forming region", The Astrophysical Journal, 854 (2) 177, arXiv:1801.06154, Bibcode:2018ApJ...854..177V, doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aaaa6b van der Marel, Nienke; Dong, Ruobing; di Francesco, James; Williams, Jonathan P.; Tobin, John (February 2019), "Protoplanetary disk rings and gaps across ages and luminosities", The Astrophysical Journal, 872 (1) 112, arXiv:1901.03680, Bibcode:2019ApJ...872..112V, doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aafd31 van der Marel, Nienke; Birnstiel, Til; Garufi, Antonio; Ragusa, Enrico; Christiaens, Valentin; Price, Daniel J.; Sallum, Steph; Muley, Dhruv; Francis, Logan; Dong, Ruobing (December 2020), "On the diversity of asymmetries in gapped protoplanetary disks", The Astronomical Journal, 161 (1) 33, arXiv:2010.10568, doi:10.3847/1538-3881/abc3ba van der Marel, Nienke; Mulders, Gijs D. (June 2021), "A stellar mass dependence of structured disks: a possible link with exoplanet demographics", The Astronomical Journal, 162 (1): 28, arXiv:2104.06838, Bibcode:2021AJ....162...28V, doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ac0255

References

External links Home page Nienke van der Marel publications indexed by Google Scholar

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Nienke van der Marel

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Nienke van der Marel claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Nienke van der Marel before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Nienke van der Marel ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Nienke van der Marel

In research: Nienke van der Marel appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Nienke van der Marel in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Nienke van der Marel is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1986 births, Academic staff of Leiden University, Dutch astronomers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Nienke van der Marel outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Nienke van der Marel in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Nienke van der Marel means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Nienke van der Marel out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Nienke van der Marel in simple terms?

Why does Nienke van der Marel matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Nienke van der Marel?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Nienke van der Marel.