When the Stars Align: The Quest to Learn How, Why, and Where Planets Form Online

Imagine you were designing a planetary system. What kind of planets would you include? Where would you place them? How would they be oriented? How would they move around their star? Join us for a free virtual presentation by Emma M.C. Louden titled "When The Stars Align: The Quest to Learn How, Why, and Where Planets Form" on Tuesday, September 6, 2022 from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm.

This program is presented by the Hamden Public Library in cooperation with the Yale Peabody Museum Speakers Bureau. The event is free and open to the public. Registration is required. Register online by clicking on this link or call 203-287-2680. After signing up, you will receive a Zoom meeting link by email. 

Over the past 30 years over 4000 planets have been found in approximately 500 planetary systems outside of our Solar System. And most of them don’t look like our Solar System! We have one set-up here, but it turns out that a lot of other systems don’t look like ours. In this talk we will look at how, why and where planets form beyond our Solar System and what that means for how unique the Earth is and the potential for life beyond Earth. 

Emma M.C. Louden is a second-year graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. in astrophysics at Yale University. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Princeton University in 2020 with a degree in Astrophysical Sciences and minors in Planets and Life and Latin American Studies and is a Brooke Owens Fellow. Her interests revolve around exoplanetary characterization, planetary protection, and international collaboration in space exploration. Her mission is using the advancement of human knowledge of other planets to spark passion to protect and preserve our own precious pale blue dot and all the life on it.