Is Earth Truly One of a Kind? Exploring Exoplanets with Josh Winn

Into the Impossible With Brian Keating

Brian Keating

Science, Physics, Natural Sciences

4.7 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 27 October 2024

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Please join my mailing list here 👉 https://briankeating.com/list to win a meteorite 💥 Is Earth truly one of a kind? This question has fascinated humans for decades, and with today's advanced technology, we're finally able to explore it scientifically. In this episode, renowned astrophysicist Josh Winn joins us to discuss the fascinating world of exoplanets, planetary systems, and the quest to discover other habitable planets. Josh shares the latest breakthroughs in exoplanet research, from unexpected discoveries like hot Jupiters to the ongoing efforts to detect Earth-like planets around distant stars. He also explores the challenges of studying planets light-years away and the exciting future missions that could reveal more about the universe beyond our solar system. Tune in to learn more about exoplanets and life beyond our solar system! Key Takeaways: 00:00:00 Intro 00:00:34 Rare Earth Hypothesis 00:06:04 The role of stars in exoplanet habitability 00:13:23 Judging a book by its cover 00:16:50 Could aliens detect Tokyo? 00:19:42 The Habitable Worlds Observatory 00:22:06 Methods for detecting exoplanets 00:25:21 The lazy method 00:30:03 Avi Loeb and Oumuamua 00:36:08 The nuts and bolts of Josh's work 00:44:29 The role of technology in detecting exoplanets 00:52:48 Why should young people be interested in exoplanets? 00:57:22 Outro Additional resources: 📚 Get The Little Book of Exoplanets by Josh Winn: https://a.co/d/9PK4XFV ➡️ 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	exploring exoplanets. They probably think we're out there visiting them. That's totally out of the question.
0:05.2	All we can do is try, you know, we're stuck here on the earth. All we can do is use
0:09.3	telescopes and cameras and our ingenuity to try to figure out whether planets do exist around nearby
0:14.7	stars. So it's kind of amazing that there are five or six different ways that all
0:18.8	work pretty well. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
0:27.0	Open the pod bay doors now.
0:32.0	Open the pod bay doors, pal.
0:34.0	So we're going to get to your book, Josh, but we're going to start with the Rare Earth
0:38.0	hypothesis, which is something I've always wanted to ask,
0:41.0	summon of your incredible intellect and breadth of knowledge and that's
0:45.1	that the conditions that allow complex life on earth are so specific that
0:51.2	intelligent life certainly maybe life at all is very likely uncommon in the
0:56.1	universe and I wonder how you would react to the statement if you got a letter from
1:01.2	God or Mother Nature and it said life is only existent on Earth,
1:08.2	everything else is barren, cold and lifeless.
1:12.8	Would you still say there's a point to studying exoplanets?
1:16.6	I think so.
1:17.7	I think that the search for life is definitely
1:21.1	one of the fields great kind of animating principles.
1:25.0	And that's true of the public and it's also true of scientists,
1:28.0	you know, it's a thrill to be able to be part of this very long-term quest.
1:32.8	And I remain interested in that question.
	...

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