The Exoplanet Revolution: Towards Detecting and Characterizing Habitable Worlds

Exoplanets

Since the discovery of the first planet outside our solar system in the early 1990s, research into exoplanets has exploded. We now know of more than 5,600 exoplanets, with every star in the night sky having at least one planet on average. Recent discoveries show that many rocky planets exist around nearby low-mass stars, the most common type in our galaxy. Is it only a matter of time before we find Earth 2.0?

Reading

This talk will explore the latest breakthroughs in exoplanet science. We highlight groundbreaking research being conducted here at the University of Amsterdam, including recent results from specialist spectrographs such as the Habitable-zone Planet Finder and NEID—whose main aim is to detect and characterize planets in the habitable zone, the area around the star where liquid water could exist on the planet's surface. Finally, we look to the future and imagine the exciting scientific insights that future space missions and extremely large telescopes can tell us about planets, life, and our place in the universe.