3:30–5:00 pm ERC 161
Title: Towards Habitable Worlds: Detailed Characterization of the Nearest Planetary Systems
Abstract: Over the past thirty years, astronomers have made extraordinary progress in detecting planets around other stars. We now know that stars commonly host planets with a wider range of physical properties and system architectures than exist in our own solar system, and that planets likely outnumber stars in our galactic neighborhood. Now, planet detection and characterization technologies have advanced to the point that it should be possible to search for signs of life in the atmospheres of Earth-like exoplanets around Sun-like stars within a few decades. These observations will give us our first glimpse at how common -- or rare -- life is in the universe. However, before we can carry out these observations and understand the implications for the abundance of life outside the Solar system, we must first find the nearest habitable planets to observe, learn their detailed properties, and refine our understanding of habitability. In this talk, I will describe my group's work to fill in these knowledge gaps by developing new tools and methods to detect and characterize exoplanets. First, I will show how cutting-edge machine learning methods could help reveal the closest potentially habitable planets to Earth -- ideal for biosignature searches in the 2040s. Next, I will show how we can learn about extrasolar geochemistry by studying planetary accretion onto white dwarf stars -- allowing us to see whether geological processes important for habitability on Earth take place in other systems. And finally, I will describe our work to understand what happens to planets when stars run out of nuclear fuel and find out whether life can continue in a system after the host star's death.
Zoom: https://uchicago.zoom.us/j/93381746022?pwd=154p1wHz69diNZPS9Ar47URvOUCOcz.1
