The Habitability of Our Nearest Exoplanet Neighbor and What Does It Mean to You

A virtual presentation hosted by Professor Evgenya Shkolnik

EVENT CO-HOSTED BY:

ABOUT THIS EVENT: Exoplanets are everywhere, and in fact, outnumber the stars in our galaxy.  Of these, billions of them are potentially habitable, including our nearest neighbor, ‘Proxima b’, which lies only 4 lightyears away.  We will learn about the discovery Proxima b and its potential to host life as we know it, and discuss its relevance to us here on Earth.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Evgenya Shkolnik is a professor of astrophysics at the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University. She is an expert on exoplanets and stars, including the Sun. She studies stellar activity and star-planet interactions using telescopes on the ground and in space to answer questions involving stellar evolution and planetary habitability. Professor Shkolnik continues to execute new observations with existing telescopes both on the ground and in space. She is also now designing new small space telescopes dedicated to these experiments.

This project is part of a national program entitled “Scientists in Synagogues,” a grass-roots initiative run by Sinai and Synapses in consultation with the American Association for the Advancement of Science Dialogue on Science, Ethics and Religion, and funded by the John Templeton Foundation, along with other individual donors.