Astronomy Live: Alien Earths

Tuesday, December 16, 2025

7 pm

The Carina Nebula - a milky sea of dark brown against a vivid blue expanse, stars shining through - photographed by the James Webb telescope in 2022.
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

Join Lisa Kaltenegger, an astrophysicist and the founding director of the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell University, as she leads you through the search for life on exoplanets. In this Astronomy Live, she will dissect the theoretical science behind alien Earths, exploring how scientists use light from distant stars to analyze the atmospheres of exoplanets and identify potential biosignatures. Kaltenegger will also discuss habitable zones, and how models of planetary chemistry and climate help us imagine what life might look like on worlds with conditions vastly different from our own.  

This program utilizes OpenSpace software supported by NASA under award No NNX16AB93A. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.