Young Stars and Planets Near the Sun in 2015: Five Takeaways and Five Predictions

TL;DR

This paper summarizes key insights from a 2015 conference on young stars and planets near the Sun, highlighting recent developments, future predictions, and ongoing challenges in the field.

Contribution

It provides a biased overview of the conference's main takeaways and predictions for the next decade in the study of nearby young stars and planetary systems.

Findings

Potential elimination of 1-2 known young moving groups.

Addition of 3 or more new moving groups within 100 pc.

Continued lack of a predictive theory for stellar mass.

Abstract

I present a highly biased and skewed summary of IAU Symposium 314, "Young Stars and Planets Near the Sun," held in Atlanta. This summary includes takeaway thoughts about the rapidly evolving state of the field, as well as crowd-sourced predictions for progress over the next ~10 years. We predict the elimination of 1-2 of the currently recognized young moving groups, the addition of 3 or more new moving groups within 100 pc, the continued lack of a predictive theory of stellar mass, robust measurements of the gas and dust content of circumstellar disks, and an ongoing struggle to achieve a consensus definition for a planet.