Astronomy: Brave new worlds - the planets around other stars

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The Earth is special to us – it's our home. But is it really special as a planet? Every star we can see in the night sky is likely to be orbited by planets. There are probably a hundred billion planets in our galaxy alone.

In less than 30 years, more than 3000 "exoplanets" have been discovered in distant solar systems. There are planets completing a revolution in less than one day, as well as planets orbiting two or even three stars or moving on trajectories so eccentric as to resemble comets. Some of them are freezing cold, some are so hot that their surface is molten. But beyond that our knowledge falters: What are they made of? How did they form? What's the weather like there? Are they habitable?

Finding out why are these new worlds as they are, is one of the key challenges of modern astrophysics.

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The talk is free, but you have reserve a space. Talks at the Royal Astronomical Society tend to be popular, so I wouldn't wait too long with reserving your place.

Please send an email to events@ras.org.uk

Feel free to join me at a nearby pub after the lecture

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