Are There Planets Like Earth Around Other Stars? Part Deux
In 2006, Alan Boss presented the first lecture in the Neighborhood Lecture Series, with the title "Are There Planets Like Earth Around Other Stars?"
Nearly two decades later, Boss returns to this existential puzzle, summarizing the extent to which this question has been answered so far, and outlining the next steps in detecting and studying Earth-like exoplanets. Major new astronomical telescopes will be required to solve the puzzle, ranging from Carnegie's Giant Magellan Telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, to NASA's anticipated space telescope, the Habitable Worlds Observatory.
Meet Alan Boss
Alan P. Boss is a leading theorist and observational astronomer at Carnegie Science’s Earth and Planets Laboratory, known for his groundbreaking work on the formation of stars, planets, and planetary systems. Boss has made significant contributions to the study of gas giants, binary stars, and astrometry—the method of detecting exoplanets by observing tiny "wobbles" in distant stars. He also played a key role in NASA’s Kepler Mission and currently chairs NASA’s Technology Assessment Committee for the Exoplanet Exploration Program. In recognition of his contributions, Minor Planet (29137) was named "Alanboss" in his honor. Boss is also the author of several popular science books, including The Crowded Universe: The Search for Living Planets.
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