Chief Scientist of the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute at Caltech/IPAC

For thousands of years, we’ve wondered if the Earth is unique, or if there are other Earths out there to find. In just the last 30 years, we’ve progressed from merely wondering if planets exist around other stars to knowing that almost every star we see has planets. Ambitious planet searches have been probing further and further, finding planetary systems of an incredible – and incredibly surprising! – variety. However, we have yet to discover another planet that might be like Earth – a rocky planet orbiting just the right distance from a Sun-like star to have liquid water on its surface. NASA has an audacious new plan for a next-generation flagship telescope that will directly image Earth-like planets around nearby stars, but it will take all of our ingenuity and technical prowess to achieve this feat. Dr Christiansen will walk you through the past, present, and future of our hunt for Earth 2.0.