#116 – Sara Seager: Search for Planets and Life Outside Our Solar System

Sara Seager is a planetary scientist at MIT, known for her work on the search for exoplanets. Support this podcast by supporting our sponsors. Click links, get discount: – Public Goods at https://publicgoods.com/lex and use code LEX – PowerDot: https://powerdot.com/lex and use code LEX – Cash App – use code “LexPodcast” and download: – Cash App (App Store): https://apple.co/2sPrUHe – Cash App (Google Play): https://bit.ly/2MlvP5w Episode links: Sara’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/profsaraseager Sara’s Website: https://www.saraseager.com/ The Smallest Lights in the Universe (book): https://amzn.to/3g3LfHA If you would like to get more information about this podcast go to https://lexfridman.com/ai or connect with @lexfridman on Twitter , LinkedIn , Facebook , Medium , or YouTube where you can watch the video versions of these conversations. If you enjoy the podcast, please rate it 5 stars on Apple Podcasts , follow on Spotify , or support it on Patreon . Here’s the outline of the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time. OUTLINE: 00:00 – Introduction 05:32 – Falling in love with the stars 09:55 – Are we alone in the universe? 15:27 – Seager equation for number of habitable planets 27:48 – Exoplanets 34:44 – Earth-like exoplanets 40:43 – Intelligent life 52:34 – Number of planets per star 55:09 – Space exploration 57:36 – Traveling to Proxima Centauri 1:00:52 – Starshade 1:07:34 – Using the sun as a gravitational lens 1:09:44 – Starshot 1:12:45 – Rogue planets 1:15:44 – The Smallest Lights in the Universe 1:30:15 – Book recommendations 1:37:48 – Advice for a young person 1:39:29 – Meaning of life