Are We Alone in the Universe?
Kavli Institute Fulldome Lecture presented by MSUM Planetarium
Friday, Nov. 3 | 7:30-8:30 p.m. | MSUM Planetarium
Presented by Dr. Lisa Kaltenegger, Director, Carl Sagan Institute, Cornell University
Thousands of exoplanets have been discovered over the past two decades. In this lecture Dr. Kaltenegger will discuss these discoveries and explore how we can determine which of these exoplanets might be suitable for life. She will discuss techniques and missions to detect life itself on these worlds to finally answer the question: “Are we alone in the Universe?”
Lisa Kaltenegger is director of the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell University and an associate professor in Cornell’s astronomy department. Her research focuses on exploring worlds around alien Suns and searching for signs of life. Her awards include the 2014 Doppler Prize for Innovation in Science and the 2012 Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize for Physics. She was named an innovator to watch by TIME, a Role Model for Women in Science and Research by the European Commission, and one of America’s Young Innovators by Smithsonian Magazine. She is featured in the new IMAX movie “Search for Life in space.” Asteroid 7734 Kaltenegger is named after her.
In the Kavli Fulldome Lectures, Adler Planetarium visualization experts help leading scientists communicate with the public—both at the museum and around the world—by following a golden rule of storytelling: Show; don’t tell.
Each presentation features dazzling, animated images of real data projected onto the planetarium dome. Instead of raw data in charts and graphs, you might see the orbits of trans-Neptunian objects converge in the distant past or a gravitational wave rippling through spacetime.