44: Waterworld?

from syzygy · host Chris Stewart

Help us make Syzygy even better! Tell your friends and give us a review, or show your support on Patreon: patreon.com/syzygypod Syzygy is produced by Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York. On the web: syzygy.fm | Twitter: @syzygypod Things we talked about in this episode: The research papers: Tsiaras et al, and Benneke et al National Geographic article about the discovery Some of the hyped media response The Goldilocks Zone Hubble Space Telescope James Webb Space Telescope What’s a Grism?

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Sep 27, 2019

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What this episode covers

Astronomers have found an exoplanet that is in its star's habitable zone, is (sorta) Earth-sized, and has water on it! ZOMG it's Earth 2.0! Alien life!! Woah there — not so fast with the hyperbole, Scooter. It's an exciting discovery, for sure, but not for the reasons the media thinks. Detecting water on other planets is indeed important, but don't jump to conclusions about finding signs of life just yet ...