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

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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

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Into the Impossible with Brian Keating is a podcast dedicated to all those who want to explore the universe within and beyond the known.

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