Astronomy Colloquium

Many of the known planets - in the solar system Mars and beyond - will survive the post main-sequence evolution of their host stars into white dwarfs. Later interactions scatter asteroids, moons, and possibly entire planets deep into the gravitational potential of the white dwarf, where they are disrupted, and eventually accreted. I will review the rich observational evidence for evolved planetary systems at white dwarfs, and discuss how the study of these systems can inform us on the conditions and the efficiency of planet formation, and on the architectures of outer planetary systems inaccessible to direct detections.