Topic: The Exoplanet Revolution and the Consequences for Life in the Universe
Speaker: Didier Queloz
Time: Tuesday, November 26, 2024, 14:30-16:30
Venue: Sunrise Concert Hall, Xueyuan Road Campus
Sponsors: InternationalRelations Department, ShenYuan Honors College
Co-organizers: School of Astronautics, School of Physics, School of Space and Earth Sciences
Abstract:
Exoplanets identified over the last 25 years range from large planets like Jupiter to smaller denser objects like the Earth. The diversity and the prolific amount of planets discovered revolutionised our understanding of the nature and the formation history of planets, opening up a surprising new perspective on the possible rarity of planetary systems similar to our own. It has also raised exciting prospects about the potential of probing planetary atmospheres for traces of life activity.
This lecture presents an outlook of this landscape, discussing the implications of these recent findings. New insights about the origins of life will be presented in light of recent experiments about the possible origin of pre-biotic chemical building blocks, as well as a possible long-range pathway for detecting Earth-like systems amenable to the remote study of life.
About the Speaker:
Didier Queloz was born in Switzerland in 1966. He is an astronomer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics and the Wolf Prize in Physics, Fellow of the Royal Society, Director of the Leverhulme Centre for Life in the Universe, Jacksonian Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, and Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. His research mainly focuses on exoplanets, stellar physics, and life in the universe. He has published over 700 papers in academic journals such as Nature and Astronomy and Astrophysics.
Didier Queloz has been jointly awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics along with James Peebles and Michel Mayor for their pioneering advances in physical cosmology, and the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star. The Nobel Prize in Physics that year was awarded “for contributions to our understanding of the evolution of the universe and Earth’s place in the cosmos.”
Didier Queloz and Michel Mayor discovered a planet orbiting the Sun-like star “51 Pegasi,” namely “51 Pegasi b,” when they analyzed the star using customized instruments at the Haute Provence Observatory in southern France. In October 1995, they announced this significant discovery at the International Astronomical Conference in Florence. “51 Pegasi b” is the first exoplanet discovered outside the solar system, and is widely regarded as one of the most important astronomical discoveries in recent decades. To date, scientists have discovered more than 4,000 exoplanets in the Milky Way, with an incredible variety in size, shape, and orbit, which has greatly enriched humanity's understanding of planetary systems.
