EXOHOST Seminar: Prof. Sara Seager "Planetary Atmospheres and the Search for Signs of Life Beyond Earth"

Join the seminar via Zoom.

Abstract

For thousands of years, inspired by the star-filled dark night sky, people have wondered what lies beyond Earth. Today, the search for signs of life is a key motivator in exoplanet research.  A suitable “biosignature gas” is one that: can accumulate in an atmosphere against atmospheric radicals and other sinks; has strong, unique atmospheric spectral features; and has limited abiological false positives. Despite a growing list of potential biosignature gases and exquisite data from the successfully operational James Webb Space Telescope, we are now confronted with practical challenges of tiny signals and noise coming from the host stars. Another severe challenge is the unknown exoplanetary environments likely vastly different from Solar System planets and so the controversial phosphine on Venus and methane on Mars reports provide a prescient backdrop for a reality check on exoplanet biosignature gas research. Our pace and history of milestone discovery in exoplanets in the last quarter century, combined with new telescope paradigms, promises to eventually deliver on finding signs of life beyond Earth.

About Professor Sara Seager

Professor Seager is a renowned astrophysicist and planetary scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is a pioneer in the field of exoplanet research, known for her groundbreaking work on exoplanet atmospheres and the theoretical foundation for detecting biosignatures.  Professor Seager is a recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including a MacArthur Fellowship, and is a leading voice in the quest to find another Earth.

EU Twinning project EXOHOST aims to strengthen the quality of stellar physics research at UT Tartu Observatory to become a center of excellence for exoplanet host star studies. To achieve this, Tartu Observatory will partner with three excellent research institutions – University College London, Uppsala University, and Space Research Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101079231 (EXOHOST), and from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) under the UK government’s Horizon Europe funding guarantee (grant number 10051045).