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 

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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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