The nearest exoplanet is about 4 light-years away, but from a single speck of light, scientists can peer into their atmospheres - and recreate pieces of these distant worlds here on Earth.
The nearest exoplanet is about 4 light-years away, but from a single speck of light, scientists can peer into their atmospheres - and recreate pieces of these distant worlds here on Earth.
Exoplanets are planets that exist beyond our solar system, and some of them are so extreme that they challenge our understanding of how planets formed. At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, scientists are studying them in a variety of ways - two of them are: recreating the crushing pressures and temperatures of planetary interiors with powerful lasers, and developing imaging technology to detect their faint light across vast distances. Together, these approaches help reveal how distant planets form, what they’re made of, and what conditions might make them habitable.
Guests featured (in order of appearance):
--
Big Ideas Lab is a Mission.org original series.
Executive Produced by Levi Hanusch.
Sound Design, Music Edit and Mix by Matthew Powell.
Script by Caroline Kidd.
Story Editing by Levi Hanusch.
Audio Engineering and Editing by Matthew Powell.
Narrated by Matthew Powell.
Video Production by Ryan Gerecke.
Brought to you in partnership with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.