Sara Seager

Well, I feel like it's a very hard challenge. It would be like asking a regular person to just get ready to hike up Mount Everest, and it's going to take a ton of work. We have different ways to find planets, but the problem is our Earth is so small, so less massive, and so dim compared to our sun.

Well, I feel like it's a very hard challenge. It would be like asking a regular person to just get ready to hike up Mount Everest, and it's going to take a ton of work. We have different ways to find planets, but the problem is our Earth is so small, so less massive, and so dim compared to our sun.

So an Earth twin, it's not that an Earth twin is like the faintest thing that has ever been observed by the Hubble Space Telescope or the James Webb Space Telescope. It's that it's right next to a big, bright, massive star. It's just so overwhelmed in every possible way that any technique we do have has to work way better than you can imagine.

So an Earth twin, it's not that an Earth twin is like the faintest thing that has ever been observed by the Hubble Space Telescope or the James Webb Space Telescope. It's that it's right next to a big, bright, massive star. It's just so overwhelmed in every possible way that any technique we do have has to work way better than you can imagine.

Like for example, let's say you're moving a table into your apartment and you have to make sure it's going to fit through the door and you're going to measure the table with a tape, measuring tape, but you're going to measure it that your table is five feet wide or maybe it's three feet wide, but are you going to measure it's 5.00001 feet?

Like for example, let's say you're moving a table into your apartment and you have to make sure it's going to fit through the door and you're going to measure the table with a tape, measuring tape, but you're going to measure it that your table is five feet wide or maybe it's three feet wide, but are you going to measure it's 5.00001 feet?

Like, I don't think your measuring tape goes to that many decimal places. Well, to find another Earth, by going to space and blocking out the starlight so we can see the planet directly, we have to go to 10 decimal places. And so that's extremely hard to do, to block out the glare of the star, hopefully so that only planet light enters the telescope. And we have several ways to do that.

Like, I don't think your measuring tape goes to that many decimal places. Well, to find another Earth, by going to space and blocking out the starlight so we can see the planet directly, we have to go to 10 decimal places. And so that's extremely hard to do, to block out the glare of the star, hopefully so that only planet light enters the telescope. And we have several ways to do that.

There's a NASA mission afoot called Habitable Worlds Observatory. And their target launch is the mid 2040s, which is quite far away. And the project is incredibly challenging to have a device that goes inside the telescope and blocks out the light to one part in 10 billion. My favorite one is called Starshade.

There's a NASA mission afoot called Habitable Worlds Observatory. And their target launch is the mid 2040s, which is quite far away. And the project is incredibly challenging to have a device that goes inside the telescope and blocks out the light to one part in 10 billion. My favorite one is called Starshade.

Starshade is a giant, specially shaped screen like a huge sunflower that would have its own spacecraft and go to outer space. and work with the space telescope by formation flying and blocking out the starlight so that only planet light enters the telescope.

Starshade is a giant, specially shaped screen like a huge sunflower that would have its own spacecraft and go to outer space. and work with the space telescope by formation flying and blocking out the starlight so that only planet light enters the telescope.

And some people, myself included, are trying to find a way to start everything before the 2040s to get something happening so we can move this field forward and hammer away at the very nearest sun-like stars to see what's there.

And some people, myself included, are trying to find a way to start everything before the 2040s to get something happening so we can move this field forward and hammer away at the very nearest sun-like stars to see what's there.

The first takeaway is that all stars appear to have planets. So the next time you go out and look up at the night sky and see the stars, you can wonder what kind of planet is around that star. I actually love to imagine there are intelligent beings on planets orbiting other stars, and they look back at our sun, a star to them, and that they're wondering the same thing.

The first takeaway is that all stars appear to have planets. So the next time you go out and look up at the night sky and see the stars, you can wonder what kind of planet is around that star. I actually love to imagine there are intelligent beings on planets orbiting other stars, and they look back at our sun, a star to them, and that they're wondering the same thing.

The second takeaway is that solar system copies are rare. Before exoplanets were known, when scientists studied our planetary system, our solar system, they expected that copies of that would be everywhere, that other stars also had terrestrial planets close to the star and giant planets further out.

The second takeaway is that solar system copies are rare. Before exoplanets were known, when scientists studied our planetary system, our solar system, they expected that copies of that would be everywhere, that other stars also had terrestrial planets close to the star and giant planets further out.

So imagine our surprise when the first exoplanet found around a sun-like star was the Jupiter mass planet, but not far from its star like Jupiter is, instead way up close. many times closer to its star than Mercury is to our sun. And what it's doing there, no one really knew. So all those planetary systems out there, they have very different configurations.

So imagine our surprise when the first exoplanet found around a sun-like star was the Jupiter mass planet, but not far from its star like Jupiter is, instead way up close. many times closer to its star than Mercury is to our sun. And what it's doing there, no one really knew. So all those planetary systems out there, they have very different configurations.