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The local universe, the search for life, and the Physics Nobel Prize 2019
Ansgar Reiners (Univ Goettingen)
DESY Hamburg, 16.45 h
Our view of Earth in the universe, and of the odds to find other places where life may exist have dramatically changed over the last few decades. Before the 1990's, the solar system was seen as the textbook model of planetary systems, but the discoveries over the last 25 years in the field of exoplanets have crushed this picture. Today, we know that the zoo of planets in the Galaxy is much more rich and diverse than originally thought. Nevertheless, the role of Earth remains opaque because around other stars, we only begin to see the population that is similar to our solar system. Questions for the near future are: can and do other planets also host life, and how we can find out?
The Physics Nobel Prize 2019 was awarded for contributions to our understanding of the evolution of the universe and Earth's place in the cosmos. With an emphasis on the local universe, I will give an overview about where we are in this field.
