Lisa Kaltenegger, professor of Astronomy at Cornell University, founder and director of the Carl Sagan Institute, gave a colloquium titled “Searching for Habitable Worlds: Challenges & Opportunities”. The event was organised by the Department of Physics at Técnico, on 6th April, at Alameda campus.

The renowned expert, who will be at Técnico over the next 4 weeks, stressed “in this colloquium, I will present the newest results of our research and its opportunities on the way to finding out whether or not we are alone in the cosmos”.

The Science Team Member of NASA’s TESS Mission stressed the importance of the telescopes, which will allow us to understand whether we are in the presence of rocky planets or super-Earths, and identify the atmosphere of the habitable zone.

Lisa Kaltenegger shared that this scientific area has been highlighted in recent years, namely “when the first planet orbiting a Sun-like star was discovered in 1995”. She also explained that the most effective method for detecting planets is through transit photometry and radial-velocity method, as well as measuring the planet’s mass and the distance it is from a star, in order to detect the planet’s actual mass.

The speaker’s speech kept the audience engaged and stimulated students’ interest in space exploration.