Space Talk presentation with Dr. Munazza Alam explores whether exoplanets could host life
On July 6, 2023, Liberty Science Center hosted Dr. Munazza Alam, postdoctoral researcher at the Carnegie Earth & Planets Laboratory, for our latest Space Talk presentation: “Exploring Alien Worlds.”
Are there other planets in the universe that could host life? This is one of the most fundamental questions that astronomers and scientists have asked for centuries, and a question being investigated by Dr. Alam and her colleagues around the world.
Since our first confirmed discovery of an exoplanet – defined a planet outside our solar system – in 1992, we have discovered over 5,000 of them (for the latest count, check out https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/). Until very recently, though, the best we could do is find them, without truly understanding whether they contained things such as water, atmosphere, and the chemical building blocks for life.
Thanks to the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, things are finally starting to change. Because of the Webb's power, we can get much clearer views of these distant planets than ever before. In her presentation, Dr. Alam took viewers on a journey to some of the exoplanets studied by this groundbreaking telescope.
Dr. Alam also explored how astronomers like herself find the ingredients for life on these exoplanets. Scientists carefully observe an exoplanet as it passes in front of its parent star, called a transit. Then they look for evidence of these ingredients in the planet's atmosphere. Slight differences in the light that reaches us during a transit are big clues to what the planet's atmosphere is made of.
Approximately 70 exoplanets were studied in the JWST’s first year of operation, and astronomers like Dr. Alam have already characterized the atmospheres and conditions for several of them. Who knows what we’ll discover next?
Below, check out a clip from the presentation in 360 degrees:
Join us next month, on Aug. 3, as we welcome Dr. Jo Dunkley, Professor of Physics and Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University, for an exploration of dark matter.
Click here to learn more and reserve your spot now.
