Joint Astrophysical Colloquium
The Climates of Other Worlds: Searching for the Next Habitable Planet
Aomawa Shields (UC Irvine)
Thursday 26/06/2025 @ 11:30, Sala Antonio Sollima (IV piano Battiferro)
The discovery of numerous planets orbiting low-mass stars signals a major planetary population that is likely to be the primary environment explored in the search for life beyond the Solar System. As we continue to discover and study these distant planets, dedicated missions to moons within our own solar system hold the potential to accurately quantify the habitability of environments much closer to home within the next decade. The environments of these planets and moons, and their climatic impacts, along with the effects of the many other factors and processes that can strongly influence planetary climate and habitability, must be understood to accurately determine a planet's (or moon's) habitability potential. Professor Shields will describe the methods used by her research group, the Shields Center for Exoplanet Climate and Interdisciplinary Education, to quantify the effects on planetary climate of a range of factors currently unconstrained by observations. She will share recent results from this work using a hierarchy of computer models, and discuss the implications of these results for planetary habitability and the identification of those worlds most capable of supporting life.