Searching for Alien Earths with Lisa Kaltenegger [Ep. 411]

Into the Impossible With Brian Keating

Brian Keating

Science, Physics, Natural Sciences

4.7 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 5 May 2024

⏱️ 58 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 unique, or are there other Earth-like planets full of life? If so, what might life be like on these other planets? Could we even detect it? These questions have puzzled people for millennia. Now, we finally have the technology to explore it. Among the people who have taken up the search for other Earth-like planets and extraterrestrial life is today's guest, Lisa Kaltenegger! Lisa Kaltenegger is an award-winning astrophysicist and astrobiologist and the founding director of the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell. She is a pioneer and world-leading expert in modeling habitable worlds and their light footprints. For the last decade, she has been finding new ways to discover life in space, working with NASA and ESA from Austria to the Netherlands, Harvard, Germany, and now Cornell. Today, she will take us on an exciting journey through space in search of habitable planets and life. Tune in! Key Takeaways: 00:00:00 Intro 00:03:00 Judging a book by its cover 00:06:16 What kind of aliens is Lisa looking for? 00:10:50 The key technology for planet hunting 00:16:51 Modeling habitable planets 00:24:09 A trip through probability space 00:33:58 Panspermia and life on Mars 00:38:02 Proof of life 00:44:51 Information theory and identifying signs of life 00:48:11 The implications of discovering extraterrestrial life 00:53:16 The future of pedagogy 00:57:39 Outro Additional resources: ➡️Win a copy of ALIEN EARTHS! enter here: https://kingsumo.com/g/mkl3j6/win-a-copy-of-dr-lisa-kaltenegger-s-hit-book-alien-earths ➡️Learn more about Lisa Kaltenegger: 📚 Alien Earths: https://a.co/d/bKobTOp ✖️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/KalteneggerLisa/ ➡️ 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	Carl Sagan died over 25 years ago, but his legacy lives on, and so does the mystery that
0:06.2	haunted him all of his life.
0:08.9	What if Earth isn't the only home for life in the universe? Imagine the vast expanse of space filled with planets teaming with life.
0:17.2	As Carl said, if there's no life, it's an awful waste of space. But what does space look like? Could we even detect life on other planets? These aren't
0:25.6	just sci-fi questions. They're the heart of humanity's oldest and most profound curiosities.
0:31.1	And now, thanks to cutting-edge technology and theoretical progress from today's guest,
0:35.8	we're closer than ever defining the answers.
0:37.9	Today, we're joined by a Trailblazer in the quest for worlds beyond our own.
0:42.4	Dr. Lisa Kaltenager,
0:44.0	director of the Carl Sagan Institute
0:45.9	at Cornell University.
0:47.6	Under her leadership,
0:48.5	a multidisciplinary team of scientists
0:50.5	is developing innovative tools to detect signs of alien life.
0:56.1	What exactly do we need for life to begin somewhere else?
0:58.8	This is one of Lisa's key driving questions, and her work propels us into these mysteries and beyond.
1:04.8	She's here today to take us on an extraordinary journey across the Cosmos, seeking habitable planets,
1:10.0	and perhaps the next Earth, the alien Earth.
1:13.9	Stay tuned as we embark on this cosmic voyage.
1:16.5	You never know who or what we might meet out there. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
1:27.0	Open the pod bay doors now.
1:32.0	Open the pod bay doors now.
	...

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