The Search for Exoplanets and Life Elsewhere in the Universe | Geoff Marcy

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Geoff Marcy has been a pioneer in the search for extra-solar system planets since the first discovery of an exoplanet surrounding a main sequence star was made in 1995 by Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz. Within months, Marcy and his team had not only confirmed this result but detected numerous other exoplanets. Seventy of the first one hundred exoplanets were discovered by Marcy’s team, including the first exoplanet located as far away from its star as Jupiter is to the Sun, and the first exoplanet discovered by observing the transit of its host star, a technique that will be used by JWST to explore the atmosphere of exoplanets to search for biosignatures. Marcy was then a Co-PI on the Kepler Mission, which discovered over 4000 exoplanets. For their pioneering work in the creation of this new field, Marcy and Mayor shared the international Shaw Prize in 2005. More recently Marcy has turned his attention to methods to probe for intelligent life in the Universe, first as a PI on the Breakthrough Listen Project, and more recently exploring novel methods, including optical techniques to probe for possible signals of intelligence elsewhere.

Lawrence and Geoff discussed all of these exciting topics and Geoff’s origins as a scientist in a thoughtful and fascinating discussion. He has become well known not just as a world-renowned scientist, but as one of the best communicators of astronomy there is. This discussion will give a whole new dimension to your thinking about that age-old question: Are we alone in the Universe?