Speaker: Prof. Sara Seager (Massachussetts Institute of Technology)

Abstract: "NASA’s latest planet-finding mission TESS monitors the brightness of hundreds of thousands of stars per month, searching for drops in brightness that indicates an exoplanet transiting its host star. Computer algorithms detrend the data and flag threshold crossing events, followed by human or computer identification of planet candidates. A world-wide team of hundreds of astronomers then follow up planet candidates with specialized telescopes to confirm planet status. The TESS mission is capable of finding small rocky exoplanets transiting small M dwarf stars, including some planets orbiting in their host star’s “habitable zone”. Such planets will be followed up with future telescopes for atmosphere studies—for the search for signs of habitability and signs of life by way of atmospheric "biosignature gases". I will review the TESS mission status and latest findings, and present new work from laboratory studies and computer simulations of potential biosignature gases in diverse exoplanet atmospheres."

Short bio: Sara Seager is a planetary scientist and astrophysicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she is a Professor of Planetary Science, Professor of Physics, Professor of Aerospace Engineering, and holds the Class of 1941 Professor Chair. She has pioneered many research areas of characterizing exoplanets with concepts and methods that now form the foundation of the field of exoplanet atmospheres. Her present research focus on the search for life by way of exoplanet atmospheric “biosignature” gases has also led to research in the evolution of life through chemical space. Professor Seager works on space missions for exoplanets including as: the PI of the CubeSat ASTERIA; the Deputy Science Director of the MIT-led NASA Explorer-class mission TESS; and as a lead of the Starshade Rendezvous Mission (a space-based direct imaging exoplanet discovery concept under technology development) to find a true Earth analog orbiting a Sun-like star. Professor Seager received her PhD from Harvard. Among other accolades, Professor Seager is a member of US National Academy of Sciences, a MacArthur Fellow, a recipient of the Sackler Prize in the Physical Sciences, and has Asteroid 9729 named in her honor.