The Terrestrial Worlds of Other Stars
Program Overview
Join us for an exciting conversation exploring the discovery of rocky worlds orbiting nearby stars—planets that share similarities in temperature and composition with Earth. The big question is: Are these truly Earth-like orbs, or are they airless worlds inhospitable to life? Using the powerful NASA James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers are now getting their first sniffs of the conditions on some of these planets. In the not-too-distant future, powerful new observatories should definitively answer the grand question of whether or not we are alone in the Universe.
Speaker Bio
David Charbonneau is the Fred Kavli Professor of Astrophysics at Harvard University. He enjoys working with students and postdoctoral fellows to develop novel methods and instruments for the detection and characterization of planets orbiting other stars, and studies how the life cycles of the parent stars affect the presence and properties of the atmospheres of any attendant worlds. Dr. Charbonneau has pioneered many of the methods that are now widely used to discover and study these worlds, including the first passage of an exoplanet in front of its star, the first detection of an exoplanet atmosphere, and the first estimate of the number of habitable worlds in the galaxy. He recently co-chaired the National Academies study, commissioned by Congress, that describes our national strategy for exoplanet research, including the search for life in the Universe. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In September 2024, he was awarded the Kavli Prize in Astrophysics at a ceremony in Oslo, Norway.
Image Credit: Nils Lund / The Kavli Prize
Learn More about Dr. David Charbonneau
Moderator
Frank Sesno serves as the Director of Strategic Initiatives and Professor at the School of Media and Public Affairs, and as the Executive Director of the George Washington University Alliance for a Sustainable Future. The Alliance is a broad pan-university initiative to amplify the university’s teaching, research, convening and impact relating to global challenges around climate change, environmental justice, and sustainability. Sesno is also a founder of PlanetForward.org, a multi-platform project that brings students and experts together to examine sustainable innovations that "move the planet forward."
Our Partners
This event is co-hosted by Carnegie Science with The Kavli Foundation, the Royal Embassy of Norway, and the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.
