Is there life beyond our home planet? The answers may be hiding in the mysterious worlds orbiting foreign stars.

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This talk was recorded at the Ri on 1 May 2024.

The cosmic mystery of extraterrestrial life has captivated humanity for centuries. Now, with leading-edge technology, the quest for tangible answers begins. Lisa Kaltenegger, founding director of Cornell University's Carl Sagan Institute, has assembled a multidisciplinary team of experts to craft a specialised toolkit for extraterrestrial exploration.

Lisa takes us on an enthralling journey across the Universe, utilising her theory that Earth can be used as a Rosetta Stone to decode the potential for life on distant planets. In this talk, discover some of the most extraordinary exoplanets, from those veiled in oceans of lava to solitary nomads adrift in space to others basking under the light of multiple suns.

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Lisa Kaltenegger is the Director of the Carl Sagan Institute to Search for Life in the Cosmos at Cornell and Associate Professor in Astronomy. She is a pioneer and world-leading expert in modelling potential habitable worlds and their detectable spectral fingerprint. Her research focuses on rocky planets circling other stars, with a focus on potentially Earth-like exoplanets in the Habitable Zone. Lisa also serves among others on the National Science Foundation's Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Committee (AAAC), and on NASA senior review of operating missions. She is a Science Team Member of NASA's TESS Mission as well as the NIRISS instrument on JWST. Named one of America’s Young Innovators by Smithsonian Magazine, an Innovator to Watch by TIME Magazine Lisa was selected as one of the European Commission’s Role Models for Women in Science and Research. She is part of the IMAX 3D movie "The Search for Life in Space" and gives public lectures, including at Aspen Ideas Festival, TED Youth, World Science Festival and the Kavli Foundation lecture at the Adler Planetarium which was live-streamed to 6 continents. Asteroid Kaltenegger7734 is named after her.

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