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Dr. James Kasting speaks at the May meeting
How to find a habitable planet?With new exo-planets being discovered almost daily – 453 at last count - astronomers are developing strategies to determine which might host life. Prof James Kasting, a geoscientist at Penn State and a key advisor to NASA on planetary habitability, presented a fascinating lecture at the CPO club meeting explaining the scientific techniques being used to narrow down the search. He presented insight on topics such as what defines life, why earth developed life but Venus and Mars failed to, the dynamics of habitable zones near sun-like stars, and how water, carbon and an abundant atmosphere are necessary to support life. He explained how earth has remained habitable even as its atmosphere and the climate have changed dramatically over its life and as our sun has become hotter by over 30%. Presence of oxygen and small amounts of methane in the atmosphere are being used as key signatures by astronomers to detect presence of life on exo-planets.Last Updated 5/13/2010 | |||||
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