Alien Civilizations, Exomoons, and Cool, Habitable Worlds | David Kipping [Ep. 474]

Into the Impossible With Brian Keating

Brian Keating

Science, Physics, Natural Sciences

4.7 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 5 January 2025

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Please join my mailing list here 👉 https://briankeating.com/list to win a meteorite 💥 Could life exist on moons orbiting distant planets? Are We Alone? What if the key to understanding life's origins lies in the moons of distant worlds? Exoplanetary scientist David Kipping is here to answer these big questions. He is a professor at Columbia University, the leading mind behind exomoons, and also the host of the Cool Worlds Lab. He shares his groundbreaking research, including the discovery of Kepler-1708 b-i, a potential exomoon candidate. He explains why moons, like Earth’s, might be the unsung heroes in stabilizing conditions for life and how the latest tools, like the James Webb Space Telescope, are changing the game for astronomers. But that’s not all. You’ll hear about the role of panspermia (yes, life traveling between planets!), the fine-tuning of our universe, and what it takes to push the boundaries of scientific communication. If you’ve ever pondered the question, “Are we alone?” or simply love a good cosmic mystery, this is an episode you don’t want to miss. Tune in now for an eye-opening journey through the cosmos and beyond! — Key Takeaways: 00:00 Intro 01:58 David Kipping's background and motivation 05:09 The role of moons in the origin of life 10:59 Bayesian frameworks and panspermia 19:30 Exomoon detection and research strategy 32:40 JWST observations and data analysis 41:14 Balancing scientific communication and public engagement 50:48 Future missions and their impact on exomoon research 54:49 Advice for young scientists and final thoughts 57:32 Outro — Additional resources: ➡️ Learn more about David Kipping: 📱 Website: https://www.coolworldslab.com/ ✖️ Twitter: https://x.com/david_kipping 🔔 YouTube Channel: Cool Worlds Lab ✍️ Kepler-1708 b-i Study: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-021-01539-1 ➡️ Follow me on your fav platforms: ✖️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating 🔔 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1 📝 Join my mailing list: https://briankeating.com/list ✍️ Check out my blog: https://briankeating.com/cosmic-musings/ 🎙️ Follow my podcast: https://briankeating.com/podcast — Into the Impossible with Brian Keating is a podcast dedicated to all those who want to explore the universe within and beyond the known. Make sure to follow/subscribe so you never miss an episode! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to Into the Impossible with your host, Brian Keating. Today we're going to journey
0:05.7	through the galaxy and even beyond our solar system with a phenomenal educator, thinker, and
0:11.9	scientist, David Kipping, a professor at Columbia and host of the Cool World's Lab podcast and
0:17.6	YouTube channels with nearly one million subscribers and close to 100 million views.
0:23.4	David's a renowned exoplanet hunter, an author of numerous groundbreaking papers on a subject
0:28.8	he basically invented exo moons.
0:31.2	We'll uncover his quest for Kepler 1708, B.I, a giant moon candidate orbiting a distant world,
0:39.2	and we'll explore how our moon and exo moons may help solve the fine-tuning puzzle of extraterrestrial life. David's a remarkable mind,
0:46.1	and you'll discover how basine frameworks, birth-to-death ratio rates, and ecological models can
0:51.6	converge to challenge our understanding of life in the cosmos.
0:54.9	Buckle up for an enthralling conversation on exo-moons, abiogenesis, and the Fermi paradox.
1:00.7	And learn from David, one of the most renowned educators of our time,
1:04.2	why your future cosmic perspective may cause you to see our moon in a very different light.
1:10.4	Let's go.
1:17.1	Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
1:23.7	Open the pod bay doors, pal.
1:26.1	Welcome everybody to what promises to be an out-of-this-world experience, a journey through the cosmos, through life, through meaning, and through the origin of it all.
1:36.3	And I'm joined with a real, you know, kind of distant friend we just met, Professor David Kipping, a Columbia University, host of the Cool World's Laboratory
1:44.5	podcast and on podcast platforms, obviously on YouTube as well, a phenomenal channel, big
1:51.0	inspiration. And he's out today to give a fascinating colloquium at the newly formed UCSD
1:57.0	astronomy department. Welcome, David. Honestly, I've been watching your podcast for a long time and I've been really looking
2:02.4	forward to visiting and getting to chat to you about this.
	...

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