A Planet for Goldilocks | Natalie Batalha | Talks at Google

TL;DR

The search for life beyond Earth involves various methods, including searching for evidence of life in the solar system, listening for signals from outer space, and finding evidence of life on exoplanets. Kepler has made significant progress in finding exoplanets and has revealed a diversity of planets, including potentially habitable ones. Future missions like TESS and JWST will help further explore and characterize exoplanets, while the New Worlds Telescope aims to directly image habitable environments.

Transcript

NATALIE BATALHA: Good afternoon. The title of the talk, A Planet for Goldilocks-- we're looking for planets that could harbor life. In fact, government agencies both here and abroad are committed to finding evidence of life beyond Earth and are investing a lot of resources towards that objective. So I'm going to tell you about one pathway-- one pos... Read More

Key Insights

• 👾 The search for life beyond Earth includes exploring the solar system, listening for signals from outer space, and finding evidence of exoplanets.
• 🧡 The Kepler Mission has made significant progress in finding exoplanets and has revealed a wide range of planetary sizes and orbits.

Questions & Answers

Q: What are the three pathways for finding evidence of life beyond Earth?

The three pathways are searching for life in the solar system, listening for signals from outer space, and finding evidence of life on exoplanets.

Q: How does the Kepler Mission search for exoplanets?

Kepler uses the transit method, which involves measuring the brightness of stars and looking for periodic dips in brightness caused by a planet passing in front of the star.

Q: What is the significance of the discovery of planets smaller than Neptune in the habitable zone?

The discovery of small planets in the habitable zone suggests that potentially habitable Earth-sized planets could be more common than previously thought.

Q: What is the New Worlds Telescope?

The New Worlds Telescope is a proposed space-based telescope that aims to directly image potentially habitable environments on exoplanets.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• The search for life beyond Earth involves looking for evidence of life in the solar system (such as on moons or Mars) and searching for signals from alien civilizations.

• The Kepler Mission has greatly contributed to the search for exoplanets, revealing a wide range of planetary sizes and orbits.

• Two upcoming missions, TESS and JWST, will help further explore and characterize exoplanets, while the New Worlds Telescope aims to directly image potentially habitable environments.