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Are we alone in the Universe? People have asked some version of this question for more than two thousand years, but only in the last decade has it become one we can hope to answer with observational data. We now know of thousands of planets orbiting other stars, some of them rocky worlds not much bigger than Earth, and telescopes such as JWST can measure the composition of their atmospheres by watching starlight filter through them. The search for life has therefore become a search for atmospheric chemistry that living things produce and nonliving processes do not. Thomas Beatty, Assistant Professor in the Department of Astronomy and a member of the Wisconsin Center for Origins Research (WiCOR), will describe how these measurements are made, which gases we are actually looking for and why, and what makes a “biosignature” convincing rather than merely suggestive, including the possibility that some signals could come from technology rather than biology. He will discuss how his group and colleagues across WiCOR are bringing UW–Madison into this search with current telescopes, and what upcoming facilities will let us look for next.
If you are experiencing difficulties registering, please call Learning and Talent Development at 262-7107 or email registrations2@ohr.wisc.edu.
If you would like to pay by credit card, please pay through your transcript. To get directions on how to do that, please send an email to registrations2@ohr.wisc.edu or pay during registration. You can also pay with a Workday Work Tag during or after registration. No payments will be accepted at the event and all registrations need to be paid 15 days prior to the event.
If you wish to pay with a check, please make it out to University Roundtables and send it to:
Learning and Talent Development
University of Wisconsin-Madison
21 N Park Street, Suite 5101
Madison, WI 53715
No payments will be refunded.
To request accommodations due to disability or medical need, please contact Mallory Musolf at soas@soas.wisc.edu, preferably at least two weeks before the event.
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Lesley Fisher (lesley.fisher@wisc.edu)
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| University Roundtable - Is Earth the Only Living Planet? | 11/17/2026 | 11:30 AM | 1:00 PM | Union South, Varsity Hall | Registration Ended | 11/2/2026 | 34 | YES |
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Charges are on a per event basis.
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Registration ended.
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