Signs of Life on Venus?

December Presentation via Zoom

Saturday, December 11, 2021 at 7:00 PM

Unfortunately Sara Seager will not be able to speak to us in person at our December meeting due to a COVID quarantine. However she will speak to us vis Zoom. Members will be sent a link before the meeting time. Email lbergemann@aol.com to be sent the Zoom link.

Topic: "Signs of Life on Venus?"
Speaker: Dr. Sara Seager of MIT

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 factor in modern-day planetary exploration. Astronomers have found thousands of planets that orbit nearby stars, called “exoplanets”.

Next-generation telescopes will enable us to study gases on rocky exoplanet atmospheres, including gases that might be attributed to life. Closer to home, astronomers have recently and unexpectedly detected phosphine gas on our sister planet Venus. Although now controversial, phosphine might possibly indicate the presence of life or may be explained by unknown, unusual chemistry. Professor Sara Seager, one of the world’s leading experts on the search for signs of life beyond Earth, will share the growing number of new advances on Venus as a potentially habitable world.

Sara Seager is an astrophysicist and a professor of physics and planetary science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is known for her pioneering research on exoplanets and their atmospheres. Her research has introduced many foundational ideas to the field of exoplanets, planets orbiting stars other than the sun. She is now at the forefront of the search for the first Earth-like exoplanets and signs of life on them and is pursuing exploration of Venus as a habitable world. For her research Professor Seager was awarded a MacArthur “genius” grant, and has asteroid 9729 Seager named in her honor. Professor Seager is the author of “The Smallest Lights in the Universe: A Memoir”.