Tue. September 15, 6:30PM
The Search for Life Beyond Earth
From science fiction to TRAPPIST-1: how astrophysicist Michaël Gillon's discovery of seven Earth-sized planets transformed the search for life beyond our solar system.
Long confined to philosophy and science fiction, the question of life elsewhere in the universe has become one of the most ambitious scientific quests of our time. At the centre of that transformation stands Michaël Gillon, astrophysicist at the University of Liège and the man who led the discovery of TRAPPIST-1, a system of seven Earth-sized planets orbiting a cold dwarf star 40 light-years away. Named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in 2017 and recipient of the Balzan and Francqui prizes, Gillon also directs SPECULOOS, an international network of robotic telescopes scanning the sky for habitable worlds.
With the James Webb Space Telescope now capable of probing the atmospheres of these planets, the search for chemical signatures of life has moved from theory to observation. Gillon will present the latest findings, the technological challenges ahead, and the realistic prospects for detecting extraterrestrial life in the coming decades.
Are we alone? For the first time in history, the question may have a scientific answer.
speaker
Michaël Gillon
