A New Era of Exoplanet Characterization: Hunting for Water Worlds

Enjoy live music & astronomy talks atop Mt. Hamilton, plus viewings through our historic 36" Great Refractor & 40” Nickel telescopes!

More than 5,800 exoplanets have been discovered so far, but what do we really know about these distant worlds? With key missions like Kepler and telescopes such as Keck, we have become adept at measuring basic properties of exoplanets, but unraveling their true nature remains a thrilling challenge. Based on theoretical models of planet formation, evolution, and structure, astronomers predict a vast array of planetary compositions. Even more exciting, the most common category of exoplanets - sub-Neptunes - could be “water worlds,” resembling scaled-up versions of icy moons like Europa and Titan.

Astronomy is now entering a transformative new era with JWST, whose groundbreaking observational techniques are unveiling the complex nature of these sub-Neptunes. Transmission spectroscopy observations have already started to reveal molecular signatures in exoplanet atmospheres, shedding light on their interiors and compelling us to refine our models. From transit to transit spectroscopy, join me to learn how these recent JWST results have transformed our view of exoplanet structures and compositions, and how they are shaping the hunt for true water worlds.

Looking ahead, upcoming missions such as ESA’s ARIEL and NASA’s future Habitable Worlds Observatory will take exoplanet characterization to the next level, offering deeper insights into habitability conditions and propelling the field of astrobiology forward. By uniting new observational data with advanced theoretical models, we stand on the threshold of discovering - and perhaps one day confirming - the existence of genuine water worlds beyond our Solar System.

Performer: Charged Particles

Speaker: Dr. Artem Aguichine, UC Santa Cruz

Limit 4 tickets per customer.