Tutorial Sessions
IEEE Space, Aerospace and Defence Conference, SPACE 2025
INTEGRATED CIRCUIT COMPONENTS DESIGN ESSENTIALS
University of Cambridge, UK
Abstract:
The search for life beyond the solar system is one of the major frontiers of modern science. Numerous efforts are underway to detect habitable exoplanets around nearby stars and to characterise their atmospheres with large telescopes, including the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). A new class of habitable sub-Neptune exoplanets, called hycean worlds, have been proposed, which are expected to be temperate ocean-covered worlds with hydrogen-rich atmospheres. The possibility of such planets significantly expand and accelerate the search for life elsewhere. The first atmospheric spectrum of a candidate hycean world, K2-18 b, was observed recently with JWST which led to inferences of multiple carbon-bearing molecules in its atmosphere with hints of a potential biomarker. In this talk we will discuss these latest observational and theoretical developments towards the characterisation of habitable exoplanets and the search for life beyond the solar system.
Bio-sketch for Speaker:
University of Cambridge, UK
Nikku Madhusudhan is a Professor of Astrophysics and Exoplanetary Science at the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge, UK. His research interests include understanding the atmospheres, interiors, formation conditions and habitability of exoplanets. He is widely known for pioneering atmospheric retrieval methods for exoplanets along with various theoretical and observational developments in the field. Most recently, his work led to the theory of hycean worlds, a new class of habitable exoplanets, and to the first chemical inferences in the atmospheres of candidate hycean worlds and temperate sub-Neptune exoplanets using the James Webb Space Telescope.