Thirty Years of Exoplanet Discovery

The first exoplanet orbiting a normal sun-like star was announced in October 1995. Discoveries have been trickling in at an accelerating pace ever since, with the roster of new worlds surpassing 6000 just this year. Due to a confluence of lucky events, I’ve been afforded a front row seat to exoplanet discovery over those last three decades. The science has taken me from humble mountaintops like Lick Observatory to the most powerful space telescopes like Kepler, TESS, and Webb. As the story unfolds, so to does my human perspective. I will share the view from this front row seat - how the story started and where it’s going, what we know and don’t know, and what the next generation can look forward to as we search for evidence of living worlds beyond the Solar System.

Speaker: Natalie Batalha, UC Santa Cruz, formerly NASA Ames

Attend in person or online (see weblink)