Welcome speech | Co-Directors of the Munich Center for Geoastronomy

• Yan Lavallée (LMU, Munich)
• Kevin Heng (LMU, Munich)

Room: A 140

Keynote Talk: To See a World in a Point of Light: The Past, Present, and Future of Exoplanet Detection

• Joshua Winn (Princeton University, USA)

Room: A 140 A distant star appears as a single point of light - yet hidden within that light can be the signatures of an entire planetary system, if you know how to look. Astronomers have found thousands of planets by measuring tiny shifts, dips, and blips in the light from distant stars, using techniques that range from simple geometry and optics to Einstein’s general theory of relativity. This lecture will explain the main detection methods, describe some of the surprising planetary systems they have revealed, and look ahead to the next phase of discovery. ![enter image description here][1] [1]: https://indico.physik.uni-muenchen.de/event/729/contributions/3215/attachments/1768/2775/Gas%20giant%20planet%20HD%20209458b%20(unofficially%20named%20Osiris)%20located%20150%20light-years%20away%20in%20the%20constellation%20Pegasus.png

Keynote Talk: Volcanic Outgassing Across Time and Space

• Marie Edmonds (Cambridge University, U.K.)

Room: A 140 Volcanic degassing is the principal mechanism for the transfer of volatiles from the interior of a planet to its surface. In this talk I will discuss the role that volcanoes play, over geological time and across our solar system, in the development of atmospheres, in regulating climate and in the delivery of elements to the planetary surface that are critical for life. ![enter image description here][1] [1]: https://indico.physik.uni-muenchen.de/event/729/contributions/3000/attachments/1756/2735/Volcanic%20outgassing%20across%20time%20and%20space.jpg

Keynote Talk: Searching for Alien Earths

• Lisa Kaltenegger (Cornell University and Carl Sagan Institute, U.S.A)

Room: A 140 For thousands of years, humans have wondered whether we're alone in the cosmos. Now, for the first time, we have the technology to investigate. But once you look for life elsewhere, you realize it is not so simple. How do you find it over cosmic distances? What actually is life? As founding director of Cornell University's Carl Sagan Institute, astrophysicist Lisa Kaltenegger has built a team of tenacious scientists from many disciplines to create a specialized toolkit to find life on faraway worlds. Using our homeworld as a Rosetta Stone, the biggest space telescopes, creatively analyzing Earth's history and its astonishing biosphere to inform this search we discover not merely new continents, like the explorers of old, but whole new worlds circling other stars and how we could spot life there. Worlds from where aliens may even be gazing back at us. What if we're not alone? ![enter image description here][1] [1]: https://indico.physik.uni-muenchen.de/event/729/contributions/3002/attachments/1757/2732/Searching%20for%20Alien%20Earths.png

Scientific Talk: Photosynthesis as an Engineering Problem

• Stephen Mojzsis (Bavarian Geoinstitute (BGI), Bayreuth)

Room: A 140 Nearly half a century ago, NASA defined the specific wavelength of the vegetation Red Edge - the sharp, sudden increase of plant reflectance between the red and infrared regions of the light spectrum. Although the Red Edge is now routinely used as an indicator of chlorophyll concentration and plant stress, a molecular-level understanding of this global-scale phenomenon remained elusive. Combining expertise in geobiology, physics, astronomy, and planetary chemistry, we report the first multi-scale description of the origin of the Red Edge on Earth, unveiling additional spectral features that have only recently been verified. Extending our understanding toward exoplanets orbiting distant stars, we predict a direct relationship between stellar properties and the photosynthetic life that could have evolved on exoplanets. Our predictions will be tested in the coming years as ground- and space-based observatories continue to aim toward characterizing distant exoplanets.

Keynote Talk: The First Minerals and Rocks of the Solar System

• Mark Chaussidon (IPGP, Paris, France)

Room: A 140 One of the major unknowns regarding the early evolution of the solar system is how the first solids and rocks formed from the initial mixture of gas and dust inherited from the parent molecular cloud. Clues are provided by combining observations of the mineralogical, chemical, and isotopic composition of the components of primitive meteorites with astrophysical models of the accretion disk. ![enter image description here][1] [1]: https://indico.physik.uni-muenchen.de/event/729/contributions/3005/attachments/1758/2733/Primitive%20Chondrite%20Allende.png

Keynote Talk: Bridging Stars to Planets: Geoastronomy with Brown Dwarfs

• Adam Burgasser (UC San Diego, USA)

Room: A 140 Between the highest-mass planets and lowest-mass stars, there exists a liminal population of brown dwarfs. Co-discovered with the first extrasolar planets, these objects have diverse formation channels and planetary-like atmospheres. In this talk, I describe how modern studies of brown dwarfs require deep connections between stellar and planetary science, from formation to evolution to atmospheric processes; and discuss how this science will help us to better understand the origin and evolution of our broader Milky Way. ![enter image description here][1] [1]: https://indico.physik.uni-muenchen.de/event/729/contributions/3006/attachments/1759/2734/An%20artists%20concept%20of%20a%20brown%20dwarf,%20in%20one%20of%20whose%20clouds%20scientists%20have%20detected%20traces%20of%20the%20molecule%20phosphine.png

Scientific Talk: Planetary surface constraints on Volcanic degassing

• Donald Dingwell (LMU, Munich/Hangzhou International Innovation Institute)

Room: A 140 The surface conditions of planetary bodies vary greatly. They will have a direct influence on the physics of volcanic degassing. Thus defining the physics focussed by the atmospheric target is a central task of planetary physical volcanology. We will explore the possibilities in this talk.

Scientific Talk: The HECATE space mission. A German Helium Geocorona and Atmosphere exploration satellite

• Frank Grupp (LMU and MPI-Extraterrestrial Physics, Munich)

Room: A 140 HECATE is our proposal to investigate the Helium Geocorona, the highly dynamical major source of drag on spacecrafts in LEO-MEO orbits. Utilizing a high resolution UV-VIS spectrometer we plan to use the Earth as a proxy for exoplanets and answer question related to solar activity, metal enrichment and geolocial processes in the earths upper atmosphere.

Scientific Talk: Probing the subsurface of planetary objects

• Heiner Igel (LMU, Munich)

Room: A 140 Probing the subsurface of planetary objects is tremendously important not only to understand their evolution but also to determine structures that are relevant for future missions such as ice-bearing rocks or lava tubes on the moon. We show re-analysis of Apollo 17 data using seismic background noise that originates from thermal cracking and interferometric methods to determine near surface structure. We propose strategies for lunar exploration with autonomous sensors that use AI-based methods to determine their experimental configuration in an optimal way.

Scientific Talk: Landscapes of other worlds: Towards mapping exoplanet atmospheres

• Cyril Gapp (LMU, Munich)

Room: A 140 When you think about Planet Earth, you probably picture its beauty with the peaks and valleys, continents and oceans that make up the many faces of our home. Beyond Earth, all other planets of the Solar System show equally rich diversities of landscapes. In this talk, I will outline how attempts at mapping planets outside of the Solar System - exoplanets - are giving us glimpses into the exotic diversity within the atmospheres of these strange distant worlds.