Didier Queloz Talk on the Hunt for an Earth Twin and the Pathway for the Origin of Life
Professor Didier Queloz (University of Cambridge and University of Geneva) gave an inspiring talk to the Penn State Center for Exoplanets & Habitable Worlds, along with many students from the Penn State Astrobiolgoy Research Center. As a graduate student at the University of Geneva, Queloz co-discovered the first extrasolar planet orbiting a sun-like star in 1995. That discovery was recently recognized with the 2019 Noble Prize in Physics. Penn State’s Jason Wright recently summarized the history leading up to the discovery of 51 Pegasi b. More recently, Queloz led another project that discovered the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system that includes Earth-mass planets orbiting a nearby low-mass star. While some researchers have suggested the these planets as potentially habitable planets, Queloz described his recent research suggesting that Earth-like life would likely struggle to get started on such planets. Finally, Queloz described his vision for how future exoplanet searches could detect potentially Earth-like planets around nearby, sun-like stars. During his visit Queloz participated in three research group meetings, toured the lab where Penn State researchers recently built the Habitable Zone Planet Finder and NEID spectrographs, and engaged in lunch discussions with graduate students from the Penn State Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics.
Exciting time in the lab with Suvrath paying tribute to NEID https://t.co/PQ3sNbZYCn
— Didier Queloz (@DidierQueloz) October 18, 2019
