Astronomer Dimitar Sasselov, director of Harvard’s Origins of Life Initiative, joins us to discuss his new book "The Life of Super-Earths" and to explain why he thinks planets larger than Earth offer the best prospects for finding life as we know it.
Tags / kepler
Tagged with “kepler”
(4)
-
Dimitar Sasselov: The Life of Super-Earths
-
Cambridge Nights: Juan Pérez Mercader on Life and Astrobiology
http://cambridgenights.media.mit.edu/index.php/2011/juan-perez-mercader
Juan Pérez Mercader talks to us about the origins of life and astrobiology. Juan Pérez Mercader directs the Synthetic Life project at Harvard’s Origin of Life Inititative.
-
Kepler’s Conjecture
Episode four of Another Five Numbers, the BBC radio series presented by Simon Singh.
Johannes Kepler experimented with different ways of stacking spheres. He concluded that the "face-centred cubic lattice" was best. Using this method, Kepler calculated that the packing efficiency rose to 74%, constituting the highest efficiency you could ever get. But, how to prove it?
-
Astronomy Cast - Ep. 125: A Zoo of Extrasolar Planets
Dreaming up new planets is a favorite pastime of science fiction writers, but the universe often has them beat – coming with planets in place and forms that we had quite thought to imagine. Today we know of 228 stars orbiting alien stars, and in this episode we will look at the diversity of these worlds, from Mushy Lava covered planets to Icy Giants to the hottest of hot Jupiters.
http://www.astronomycast.com/astronomy/ep-125-a-zoo-of-extrasolar-planets/