Search for Habitable Exoplanets - Sara Seager (SETI Talks)

For centuries people have wondered, "Are we alone?" With hundreds of planets now known to orbit other stars, we are finally able to begin answering the ancient questions, "Do other Earths exist? Are they common? Do any have signs of life? NASA's Kepler space telescope will soon tell us the statistical numbers of Earth-size planets orbiting sun-size stars. Beyond Kepler is the search for potentially habitable worlds around nearby, sun-like stars. Professor Seager will discuss how astrobiology and space engineering research will come together to enable us to discover and identify other Earth-like worlds.

[szymonpawlisz]

This is what I watch instead of TV. Thank god for scientists and youtube.

[sepiae]

That were probably the shortest 70 min. in a long time. It's thrilling to listen to Prof. Seager here from a distance of a decade, with everything that has happened since. Excellent presentation, and a smart audience, too.

[TechNed]

So much has happened since 2011 and so much more to look forward to. Such an exciting time for these scientists as well as the rest of us!

[SETIInstitute]

Thanks for your feedback. We continue to do our best to improve the quality of the videos. Glad you are enjoying them!

[SETIInstitute]

It's our pleasure to bring the talks out in this format!

[SETIInstitute]

Not yet, but stay tuned for a Kepler talk by Doug Caldwell that was recorded last week and will be on your YouTube screen soon!

[pauluk]

The Q&A was very good (as good as the lecture) SETI people may have more curiosity than the average scientist does.

[SETIInstitute]

@sbergman27 Thanks Steve, glad you enjoyed it!

[skal]

I think it was a very interesting talk, thank you! 40 years means it's somewhat in reach. It would only be feasible I think if you could comatose or cryostatis the passengers for they would go nuts. It's interesting to think that there could be a company out there pioneering this type of statis technology. Even if we doubled that speed it would be 20 years. Imagine then, after 20 years we'd have to wait another 4 years to find out what they see, and another 4 years for them to hear our reaction.

[JezaGooner]

Do we have a percentage of planets potentially orbiting stars in the milky way yet?

[justicemanley]

I'm not sure if the exoplanet searches are self-selecting or what, but so far what they are finding seems to render our solar system aberrant, or at least unusual. Volatile planets are being found less than 1 A.U. from stars? What is that all about? How are volatile planets mixed up with rocky planets? This makes me think life is rare b/c the solar system arrangement is ideal for creating a very stable environment on Earth. But these exoplanets would not be stable at all, right?

[JezaGooner]

Thanks for the reply, do you guys yet include rogue planets in these equations?

[SETIInstitute]

Yes we have a talk coming up on statistics of Rouge Planets in the New Year by Mary Barsony. Check out our calender at seti.org slash talks

[Tetrodioxide]

Why do I feel there are little green space astronomers on Kelper-22b saying the same thing, only about earth being two-a-half times smaller: 7:23

[SonOfTerra]

#seti could other species be conducting the same study and in turn observing our star curiously ???

[SonOfTerra]

#science very enlightening talk, someday wish to go out there and claim some real estate =)

[SETIInstitute]

@szpetnyjan 50 spaceborne one meter telescopes using interferometry.

[dmitrijkuznetsov]

Hallo, Oberst Seager. Was sendet to "hab. «exoplanets»"? Danke, viele grüße.. Kinder OK? ;)

[MichaelHarrisIreland]

The earth might be completely different without the moon, has this been factored in in the search for earth-like planets?  Had made my comment before the question part which 'answered' my concern.

[gjc]

Gas planets/giants (like Jupiter, Saturn, etc) are much larger than solid/rocky planets & moons. (like Earth, Mars, Europa, etc)  I wonder what (if any) the theoretical size limit is for solid/rocky planets?  Surely a solid planet could not be the size of a star like our sun, yes?  If a planet were that large, wouldn't it's size & mass cause it to be molten, or even to initiate some forms of nuclear fusion? (like in our sun)