This event has ended. You can watch the recorded program below.
For thousands of years, we’ve wondered whether the Earth is unique, or if there are other Earths out there to find. Now, in just the last 30 years, we’ve progressed from merely wondering if planets exist around other stars to knowing that almost every star we see has planets. Ambitious planet searches have been probing further and further, finding planetary systems of an incredible—and incredibly surprising!—variety.
However, we have yet to discover another planet that might be like Earth—a rocky planet orbiting just the right distance from a Sun-like star to have liquid water on its surface. NASA has an audacious new plan for a next-generation flagship telescope that will directly image Earth-like planets around nearby stars, but it will take all of our ingenuity and technical prowess to achieve this incredible feat. In this lecture, planet hunter Jessie Christiansen will explore the past, present, and future of our hunt for Earth 2.0.
Virtual attendance option
This program will be presented in-person at the Linda Hall Library. If you would prefer to watch this program virtually, please follow this link to register:
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR VIRTUAL ATTENDANCE
Dr. Jessie Christiansen is the lead scientist at NASA’s Exoplanet Archive at Caltech, and the most successful woman planet hunter in the world. Her expertise is in the detection, characterization, and cataloging of new planets around other stars, with the goal of finding Earth 2.0. Dr. Christiansen has worked on a number of planet-hunting missions, including NASA’s audacious new plan for a next-generation flagship telescope that will directly detect and image Earth-like planets around nearby stars.
