Alien Earths and The Cliff of Complexity: Science Questions for the Greatest Exoplanet Experiments

by Prof. Daniel Apai (University of Arizona)

Tuesday 9 Jun 2026, 11:30 → 12:30 Europe/Rome

Sala Jappelli (Osservatorio astronomico di Padova)

The next three decades will see the rise of powerful new ground- and space-based observatories, innovative instrumentation, and  astrobiology-motivated exoplanet surveys. What will we learn from these experiments? Which questions will become answerable, and which will remain elusive? How can we design our experiments to maximize the likelihood of success?

In this talk, I will discuss the rapid progress in exoplanet discovery and characterization within the context of the complexity of potentially habitable planets and the search for life in the Universe. I will introduce Alien Earths, our major NASA-funded astrobiology research project, and show its strong and unique strategic support for the design of future exoplanet surveys and observatories. I will present Bioverse, our uniquely comprehensive exoplanet survey simulation and hypothesis testing framework. I will highlight our recent and ongoing studies with Bioverse that inform science cases for a broad range of observatories and connect progress in fundamental astrobiology research with the most important future experiments in the field. I will explore which questions can be answered and show how surveys can be designed to test hypotheses about the atmospheric evolution of habitable worlds, the existence of the habitable zone, discontinuities in exoplanet populations, and even the origins of life.

 

Join Zoom Meeting  

 

https://unipd.zoom.us/j/82482883288?pwd=MVvmMWSGaiVrGMyAFOdyQG61OAcI7D.1

Meeting ID: 824 8288 3288 
Passcode: 072472