Humans have always looked to the night sky in an effort to understand our place in the universe. For much of history, the search for life beyond Earth was largely philosophical. But it transformed into a modern, systematic scientific pursuit with the rise of radio astronomy and space exploration in the mid-20th century. Since then, this search has evolved into a deeply interdisciplinary effort, combining modeling and data analysis across planetary science, chemistry, biology, and astronomy, and now drives many of today’s NASA mission priorities from exploring diverse worlds within our solar system to studying distant exoplanets.
In this talk, I will trace the history of the search for life beyond Earth, discuss the key challenges and complexities involved, including those introduced by current and emerging technologies, and outline pathways for approaching some of these challenges in a rigorous and systematic way, so that one day it may lead us toward one of humanity’s most profound discoveries: the first detection of a biosignature from extraterrestrial life.
Dr. Dolon Bhattacharyya is a Research Scientist at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder, Colorado, whose work focuses on atmospheric escape and the long-term evolution of planetary atmospheres in both the Solar System and exoplanetary systems. She earned her PhD from Boston University’s Center for Space Physics in 2016 studying water escape from Mars and has since contributed to NASA’s MAVEN mission to Mars, led Hubble Space Telescope campaigns, and served as Project Scientist for the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory mission. Her current research extends to understanding how stellar radiation shapes exoplanet habitability. She is also a task force 2 member for the NASA Astrobiology’s DARES initiative. The task force’s goal is to develop a strategic roadmap that will help shape NASA’s future research funding, mission planning, and collaborations in astrobiology
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