Fremde Welten um ferne Sterne - Kosmischer Mittwoch

In the organizer's words:

Lecture in the Kuppelsaal with Prof. Dr. Katja Poppenhäger (AIP)

Are we alone in the vast universe - or not? This question has puzzled mankind for thousands of years. For the first time, we have the technology to search for answers. Astrophysicists have tracked down thousands of exoplanets in the last three decades: among them are glowing hot worlds with lava oceans, gigantic gas or water worlds, lonely wanderers without a sun or systems with several stars in the sky. But how can such distant celestial bodies be found, and what do their atmospheres tell us about the possibility of life? Prof. Dr. Katja Poppenhäger, Director at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam, will take you on an exciting journey through modern exoplanet research. In this lecture, you will learn how creative methods make alien planets visible, which discoveries have already changed our view of the cosmos and why the home star itself plays an important role in the search for life-friendly distant worlds.