Extrasolar Planets

Exoplanets: Discovering New Worlds

This exciting new show describes how astronomers search for planets circling other stars. It explains the two main methods they use: studying the minute “wobbles” of stars and detecting flickers in a star’s brightness. Only a few Earth-like planets have been found, and as of yet, no extraterrestrial life has been found on any of the worlds discovered so far. Yet, it’s likely to be only a matter of time before a world teeming with life shows up in astronomy surveys of stars in our galactic neighborhood.

Right now, we know of only one world where life exists: ours! But it is likely there are other places in the galaxy where life has evolved and thrived. What if that life is intelligent? Has it tried to contact us? This show speculates on the possibility of such life, and points out nearby civilizations may already know about us — from our radio and TV broadcast signals. Show length: 30 minutes