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Hunting for Exoplanets

Brian Cox and Robin Ince are joined by Eric Idle, planet-hunters Jessie Christiansen and Tiffany Kataria and cosmologist Sean Carroll to chat about the search for Exoplanets.

Brian Cox and Robin Ince continue their LA science adventure as they visit Caltech in Pasadena to meet the scientists hunting for planets orbiting distant stars in solar systems far far from our own. They are joined in their quest by Python Legend Eric Idle and Exo-planet hunters Dr Jessie Christiansen from Caltech and Dr Tiffany Kataria from NASA's JPL who are using the latest telescopes to identify distant planets outside of our own solar system. Despite their distance from us, incredible new techniques allow exoplanet hunters to paint extraordinary pictures of the atmospheres and conditions on some of the 500 or so planets that have now been identified, and allow for the tantalising possibility of one day identifying other earth like planets that could even support life. Brian and Robin chat to Sean about what the discovery of life elsewhere out in the cosmos might mean for life here on planet earth, or whether the fact we haven't found any yet is evidence we are in fact all alone?

Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem

Available now

43 minutes

Broadcasts

  • Sat 26 Nov 2022 19:15
  • Thu 1 Dec 2022 16:00

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