Astronomy Talk: Truth is Stranger than (Science) Fiction

Guest Speaker

Jessie Christiansen

Astrophysicist

NASA Exoplanet Science Institute at Caltech

We speculated about the existence of planets orbiting other Suns for hundreds, if not thousands of years before their existence was finally confirmed. During that time we invented and depicted many new and now iconic sci-fi worlds – mysterious planets with exotic landscapes, orbiting alien star systems. When our technology finally caught up with our imaginations, what we found was even more extraordinary than we had imagined. As lead scientist at the NASA Exoplanet Archive, I’ll take you on a tour of some of the more wild and wonderful exoplanet discoveries we have made, including some famous, fan-favorite fictional planets brought to life – and some we have yet to find.

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W. M. Keck Observatory wishes to offer our deepest gratitude to our Astronomy Talk Series sponsors, Rob and Terry Ryan.