Sara Seager - Modern telescopes and exoplanets

We hope that understanding how planets form and the kinds of planets will help us better understand Earth, our solar system and our role here.

About Sara Seager 

"I’m an astrophysicist and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Kavli Prize in Astrophysics, 2024.

My research focuses on exoplanets, planets which orbit stars other than our sun. My quest is to find another Earth, a true ‘Earth twin’, and to search for signs of life on any kind of exoplanet by studying their atmospheres. I’ve played a leadership role on space missions, and I’m also working for new, more sophisticated ways to find planets."

Our place in the universe

Humans are born explorers. We are driven to understand our universe and why we are here. The search for exoplanets encompasses both of these themes. We hope that understanding how planets form and the kinds of planets will help us better understand Earth, our solar system and our role here.

When astronomers began searching for exoplanets using the traditional tools of astronomy, they looked for copies of our solar system. It's amusing to consider how this entire paradigm of science – how planets form – had to be built upon our understanding of our solar system.