Professor Sara SeagerEvery podcast appearance, updated as new ones drop

I met Sara online a year ago through Fempeak, raising the socioeconomic status of women through technology. I went on her test pilot for a confidence programme she is developing. It helped to increase my confidence to teach online and during this time she showed me kindness guiding me to become more confident to share my voice with the world. Sara Seager is an astrophysicist and planetary scientist at MIT. Her main research goal is to find and identify another Earth. https://www.saraseager.com/ I read her memoir and wanted to invite her to as a guest on the podcast to share her story of gaining hope and creating her future in the wake of tragedy. We talk about H for Hope from the Kindness A-Z. Book - A Memoir - 'The smallest lights in the universe' https://www.saraseager.com/books/ In this luminous memoir, an MIT astrophysicist must reinvent herself in the wake of tragedy and discovers the power of connection on this planet, even as she searches our galaxy for another Earth. Sara Seager has always been in love with the stars: so many lights in the sky, so much possibility. Now a pioneering planetary scientist, she searches for exoplanets—especially that distant, elusive world that sustains life. But with the unexpected death of Seager’s husband, the purpose of her own life becomes hard for her to see. Suddenly, at forty, she is a widow and the single mother of two young boys. For the first time, she feels alone in the universe. As she struggles to navigate her life after loss, Seager takes solace in the alien beauty of exoplanets and the technical challenges of exploration. At the same time, she discovers earthbound connections that feel every bit as wondrous, when strangers and loved ones alike reach out to her across the space of her grief. Among them are the Widows of Concord, a group of women offering advice on everything from home maintenance to dating, and her beloved sons, Max and Alex. Most unexpected of all, there is another kind of one-in-a-billion match, not in the stars but here at home. Probing and invigoratingly honest, The Smallest Lights in the Universe is its own kind of light in the dark.

One of the most existing developments of the last two decades in the field of astronomy is the discovery of exoplanets: planets that orbit around the stars other then our sun. The idea of finding planets outside our solar system is not new; philosophers and scientists have imagined exoplanets for centuries. Giordano Bruno, an Italian philosopher, mathematician, poet, and astrologer theorised exoplanets in sixteenth century. However for centuries there was no mechanism available to detect exoplanets. The first two confirmed exoplanets were discovered in 1992. Since then the detection of new exoplanets continues. By September 2015 the number of confirmed exoplanets has reached 1892. In this podcast I discuss, in detail, with Professor Sara Seager, the fascinating research in the field of exoplanets. Professor Sara Seager is an astrophysicists and planetary scientist at MIT. Her science research focuses on theory, computation, and data analysis of exoplanets. Her research has introduced many new ideas to the field of exoplanet characterization, including work that led to the first detection of an exoplanet atmosphere. She is the author of two textbooks on these topics. She was part of a team that co-discovered the first detection of light emitted from an exoplanet, and the first spectrum of an exoplanet. In twenty thirteen she was awarded a MacArther Fellowship.