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| Exoplanets and the Search for Habitable Worlds |
| Professor Sara Seager |
| Thursday, Mar 11, 2010 at 8:00 PM |
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| For thousands of years people have wondered, “Are we Alone?” With over 400 planets discovered to orbit nearby stars, the existence of exoplanets is firmly established. Astronomers are now able to routinely measure planetary sizes, masses, and atmospheres for a subset of hot, big exoplanets. The race to find habitable exoplanets is on with the realization that big Earths orbiting small stars can be both discovered and characterized with existing technology. Professor Seager will answer the four questions she gets asked most often: “What could aliens see, looking at Earth from afar?”; “When will we find another Earth?”; “Can we go there?”; “If we cannot go there, why look?”
Professor Sara Seager is a planetary scientist and astrophysicist at MIT. Professor Seager’s research focuses on exoplanets. She develops theoretical computer models of atmospheres and interiors of all kinds of exoplanets, to make predictions and interpret data, with a prime interest in "biosignature" atmospheric gases. Her research has helped to form the field of exoplanet characterization, including work that led to the first detection of an exoplanet atmosphere. Professor Seager is a member of the Kepler Science Team. Her work has been recognized by Harvard University’s Bok Prize and by the American Astronomical Society’s Helen B. Warner Prize. In the popular media she was named in Popular Science Magazine's Fifth Annual Brilliant Ten in 2006 and Discover Magazine's "Best 20 under 40" in 2008.
Speaker Bio
Please join us for a pre-meeting dinner discussion at Changsho, 1712 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA at 6:00pm before the meeting. |
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