Exoplanet Traits & Prevalence, Jun23

As humanity begins its third decade of exoplanet observation, the science is maturing beyond individual discoveries to detailed characterization of the entire planetary population. No exploration has helped us learn more about exoplanets than NASA’s Kepler mission. While Kepler has shown that planets like Earth are common throughout the Milky Way Galaxy, we have also learned that nature produces a rich diversity of planetary compositions and orbital architectures—many of which do not resemble the Solar System in the slightest.

Our speaker, Caltech's Erik Petigura, will survey humanity's current understanding of exoplanet demographics. He will highlight how these discoveries help illuminate the processes that led to the formation of the Earth and to the origin of life. Finally, Dr. Petigura will offer some thoughts on the types of discoveries that may await us in the coming years.

Dr. Erik Petigura