I’m giving a public lecture “Exotic worlds: planets in other solar systems and what they might look like” in the lecture series of the Irish Astronomy Association (IAA) on March 1st 2017. The location is the Bell Lecture Theatre at Queen’s University Belfast, 7pm. There will be biscuits and tea afterwards.

Here’s a synopsis of the talk from the IAA: Dr Poppenhaeger will talk about how astronomers discover planets in other solar systems, and show a few of the most breathtaking scenarios for what those planets may look like. What would life be like on a habitable world around a tiny red sun? Could a moon around a giant planet be habitable? What would happen if an Earth-like planet were just a tiny bit closer to its sun than we are to ours? She will give a glimpse into the science behind these questions, and show which stars out there actually have possibly habitable worlds around them. There will be ample opportunity for asking questions after the talk.