Podcaster: Beth Johnson, Franck Marchis, and Simon Steel (alternate hosts); Guest: Dr. Cecilia Garraffo
Title: SETI Live – Electric Mayhem: TRAPPIST-1e’s Atmospheric Erosion
Organization: SETI Institute
Link: https://sites.libsyn.com/462636 ; Paper: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ad206a
Description:
Recorded live 21 March 2024.
The TRAPPIST-1 planetary system has fascinated both scientists and the public since the discovery of the last five of its seven terrestrial worlds in 2017. With four of those planets in the so-called habitable zone, where water can be liquid, the system has become a favorite target of ground- and space-based telescopes alike, especially with regard to the potential for harboring life.
However, TRAPPIST-1 is a red dwarf star, cooler and smaller than our own Sun, leading to concerns about the ability of these tidally locked worlds to develop and maintain their own atmospheres. Now, in new research published in The Astrophysical Journal, a team of researchers has discovered that TRAPPIST-1e’s atmosphere is being stripped by strong electric currents, quashing some hopes that the world is habitable.
Communications specialist Beth Johnson is joined by co-author Dr. Cecilia Garraffo from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics to talk about this disappointing news and its impact on the search for life beyond Earth, as well as her work in establishing AstroAI, “a cutting-edge research institute dedicated to advancing astrophysics through the application of artificial intelligence.”
Bio: Beth Johnson is a communications specialist and social media manager with a degree in physics and master’s work in planetary science. She specializes in meteor showers, icy moons, and anything with volcanoes.
Franck Marchis is a senior planetary astronomer and chair of the exoplanet group at the Carl Sagan Center of the SETI Institute and Chief Scientific Officer and Founder at Unistellar. He has dedicated his work to the study of our solar system, specifically the search for asteroids with moons, using mainly ground-based telescopes equipped with adaptive optics.
Simon Steel is Deputy Director of the Carl Sagan Center for Research at the SETI Institute. As an observational astrophysicist, he specialized in optical spectrophotometry, with an interest in the star formation histories of galaxies.
Dr. Cecilia Garraffo from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
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