Science Colloquium
Are We Alone in the Universe?
Nicolas Tremblay
Bishop's University
Friday, January 19, 2007
12:30 - 1:20 PM
Hamilton Room 302
The possibility of life outside our solar system has always been a fundamental question for humanity, its implications reaching deeper then a simple astrophysical fact. A positive answer may force us to rethink our defining principles of life. For some, it has been an inspiring desire to reach out the unknown...
Since the past decade, more then 200 extrasolar planets were discovered by indirect observations. Whereas currently limited to external observations about the planets, projects and mission designs are currently underway for space based telescopes scheduled to be launched in the next decade giving us the opportunity to probe deeper, into the planet's atmosphere, to search for signs of life. During this talk the main aspects of exoplanet searches including planetary and solar system formation and characteristics, detection methods, statistical properties of known extrasolar planets, planet habitability, habitable zones as well as future space based interferometer telescope missions like the Darwin Project and the Terrestrial Planet Finder will be presented.
