Blues Forteana ∴ Iggy Makarevich, AAS, LMNO

Sara Seager: Search for Planets and Life Outside Our Solar System | Lex Fridman Podcast #116

Lex Fridman
Aug 16, 2020

Sara Seager is a planetary scientist at MIT, known for her work on the search for exoplanets.

EPISODE LINKS:
Sara’s Twitter: twitter.com/profsaraseager
Sara’s Website: www.saraseager.com/
The Smallest Lights in the Universe (book): amzn.to/3g3LfHA
PODCAST INFO:
Podcast website: lexfridman.com/podcast
OUTLINE:
0:00 – Introduction
5:32 – Falling in love with the stars
9:55 – Are we alone in the universe?
15:27 – Seager equation for number of habitable planets
27:48 – Exoplanets
34:44 – Earth-like exoplanets
40:43 – Intelligent life
52:34 – Number of planets per star
55:09 – Space exploration
57:36 – Traveling to Proxima Centauri
1:00:52 – Starshade
1:07:34 – Using the sun as a gravitational lens
1:09:44 – Starshot
1:12:45 – Rogue planets
1:15:44 – The Smallest Lights in the Universe
1:30:15 – Book recommendations
1:37:48 – Advice for a young person
1:39:29 – Meaning of life

This is an absolutely fascinating conversation that I highly recommend. Exceptionally enlightening and a very sad story at the end.