On March 28, 2024, exoplanet expert Dr. Leonardo Dos Santos of the Space Telescope Institute led our latest Space Talk presentation: “The Atmospheres on Exoplanets.”

Dr. Dos Santos began his presentation – held in the Jennifer Chalsty Planetarium, the biggest planetarium in America – by exploring the 1995 discovery of the first “exoplanet,” which is defined as a planet beyond our own solar system. That announcement was greeted with controversy, as the planet, 51 Pegasi b, was nothing like the planets in our own solar system. Rather, it was big, like Jupiter, but closer to its star than Mercury is to our sun.

That discovery was followed rapidly by many others, which underscored what had been learned from 51 Pegasi b: that other planets are often utterly different from the planets in our own solar system. Dr. Dos Santos gave some striking and sometimes humorous examples of some of these extreme environments (for example, a planet where it rains hot metal).

Finding a Jupiter-sized planet close to its star is one thing; finding an Earth-sized planet in a “‘habitable zone” further from its star, however, will take new technology. Dr. Dos Santos ended his talk with a preview of the Habitable Worlds Observatory, a future space telescope that will allow us to search for other “pale blue dots” like our home planet Earth.

The talk was illustrated with striking fulldome visuals created by LSC’s planetarium team in tandem with Dr. Dos Santos. The clear explanations, the presenter’s sense of humor, and engaging manner made for a great talk under the stars!

Click here to learn more about LSC’s monthly Space Talk series.

Dr. Leonardo Dos Santos,  exoplanets,  Jennifer Chalsty Planetarium,  Space Talk