Potential Signature of Life Report in Exoplanet

Potential Signature of Life Report in Exoplanet

Read my article on The Conversation about the scientific context, importance, and complexity of the announcement that a potential signature of life was found in a transit spectrum of the planet K2-18b. What does it mean? What are the next steps? https://theconversation.com/scientists-found-a-potential-sign-of-life-on-a-distant-planet-an-astronomer-explains-why-many-are-still-skeptical-254900

Cosmic Conversations: Communicating with the Unknown

Cosmic Conversations: Communicating with the Unknown

In the College of Science 2025 Lecture Series on “Communication”, my colleague Professor Chris Impey and I spoke about the science behind potentially communicating with extraterrestrial civilizations. This is a fascinating topic that blends astronomy, astrobiology, technology, history – and thoughts about the future of human civilization. Chris and I had a blast preparing for…

Alien Earths Team Selected for major new NASA Astrobiology Award!

Alien Earths Team Selected for major new NASA Astrobiology Award!

A few days ago we got a very exciting news: Our Alien Earths team was selected by NASA for a major award within its ICAR (Interdisciplinary Consortium for Astrobiology Research) program! The $6M funding awarded to our Alien Earths team will enable a very exciting and cutting-edge portfolio of research projects for the next five…

The Age-Oxygen Relationship: Testing Earth-like Atmospheric Evolution in Living Worlds

The Age-Oxygen Relationship: Testing Earth-like Atmospheric Evolution in Living Worlds

Excited to announce our new paper on the information contained in the age-dependence of biosignatures in samples of broadly earth-like planets. Our paper – that appeared on arXiv a few hours ago and is in press at the Astrophysical Journal – explores two important questions: 1) If we detect possible biosignatures in an exoplanet survey,…