New Worlds: Analyzing the Atmospheres of Exoplanets with the James Webb Space Telescope
Non-technical Talk by Prof. Jonathan Fortney (U. of California, Santa Cruz) Apr. 9, 2025Over 6000 planets have now been found around other stars, but we only have information about what their atmospheres are like for a few dozen. NASA's powerful James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which features a 20-foot mirror in space, is currently being used to understand planetary atmospheres. Prof. Fortney explains how we can look for atmospheres around rocky planets the size of the Earth, and how his group and others are already measuring the abundances of molecules like water, methane, ammonia, and carbon dioxide in the atmospheres of larger planets, of sizes similar to Neptune and Jupiter. And he tells us what astronomers are looking forward to in the next year or two with JWST.
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1:22:52
Copernicus 4.0: How the Views of Earth's Importance and the Search for Life are Changing
Mar. 5, 2025 Dr. Simon Steel (SETI Institute)Dr. Steel discusses the Copernican revolution and how it changed humanity's view of its place in the universe. He then talked about other "Copernican" discoveries that displaced us from a central perch, including the revision of our place in the Galaxy, the discovery of other galaxies, and now our finding a remarkable number of planets (including Earth-like planets) orbiting other stars. He explains how such discoveries give context for, and have prepared us for, the next potential Copernican revolution, the discover of intelligent life elsewhere in the cosmos. He concludes by describing some of the most exciting experiments now underway to find evidence of such life among the nearest stars and busiest galaxies. Dr. Steel is Deputy Director of the Carl Sagan Center for Research at the SETI Institute.
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1:13:05
Human-Robotic Exploration from the Moon to Mars
Jan. 29, 2025Dr. Darlene Lim (NASA Ames Research Center)NASA's Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) is a planned mission to go to the South Pole of the Moon and get a close-up view of the locations that can sustain water ice – ice that could eventually be harvested to support human exploration on the Moon, on Mars — and beyond. Dr. Lim discusses how, for the first time in NASA’s history, the science team would be fully integrated into the mission operations team and will provide near real-time input on where to explore on the Moon. While the fate of the mission is now in some doubt, Dr. Lim discusses the lessons learned, and the remarkable techniques the team developed to make real-time, almost instant decisions about what the rover does next at each point in its journey. She also tells about how her earlier experience exploring deep lakes on Earth with robotic and crewed vehicles taught her valuable lessons that she could apply to designing lunar exploration protocols.
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1:12:39
Observing with the James Webb Space Telescope: Glimpsing the First Stars
Nov. 13, 2024Dr. Dan Coe (Space Telescope Science Institute)The Webb Telescope was designed to look back in time, to study the first generation of stars, and reveal our cosmic origins. Now in its second year of operation, JWST has already brought us tantalizingly close to our dream of seeing those first stars. Dr. Coe takes us on a tour of some of the latest results from the telescope, and tells us about his and others' observations of the most distant stars and galaxies astronomers have ever seen, providing a view of the universe as it was 13 billion years ago.Dan Coe is an Astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. STScI is home to JWST mission control and science operations, where staff scientists like Dan support other astronomers using Hubble and JWST. Dan has also led the Hubble RELICS and JWST Cosmic Spring science teams in discovering and studying some of the most distant galaxies known in the early universe.
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Profound and Staggering: The Impact on Religion of the Discovery of Life around Other Stars
Recorded Oct. 9, 2024Astronomers have now discovered thousands of planets in orbit around other stars. Dr. Weintraub discusses those discoveries, and predicts the progress astronomers are likely to make in their more detailed studies of these planets over the next fifty years. Then he considers the consequences of those potential discoveries for Roman Catholicism, Mainline Protestantism, Christian Creationism, Seventh Day Adventism, Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism -- for all of which the discovery of a planet with life on it may be profound. These thoughts are based on the writings of key religious leaders on this topic -- in the past and in our times.Dr. David A. Weintraub is Professor of Astronomy Emeritus at Vanderbilt University where he founded and directed the Communication of Science and Technology program, and conducted research on the formation of stars and planets. His most recent book is The Sky is for Everyone: Women Astronomers in Their Own Words (2022; with Virginia Trimble). Previous books include Religions and Extraterrestrial Life: How Will We Deal With It? (2014), Life on Mars: What to Know Before We Go (2018), How Old is the Universe? (2010), and Is Pluto a Planet? (2006). He also created the Who Me? series of inspirational scientific autobiographies for fifth-grade level readers (from World Scientific Publishing), which helps young people see themselves as scientists.
Listen to exciting, non-technical talks on some of the most interesting developments in astronomy and space science. Founded in 1999, the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures are presented on six Wednesday evenings during each school year at Foothill College, in the heart of California's Silicon Valley. Speakers include a wide range of noted scientists, explaining astronomical developments in everyday language. The series is organized and moderated by Foothill's astronomy instructor emeritus Andrew Fraknoi and jointly sponsored by the Foothill College Physical Science, Math, and Engineering Division, the SETI Institute, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, and the University of California Observatories (including the Lick Observatory.)
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