How close are we to finding alien life? | David Kipping

“There’s a long history of people claiming planets which look Earth-like, Earth 2.0, Earth twins.”

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00:00 Mapping the universe
01:33 Earth twins
02:55 The Fermi paradox
04:38 The Drake equation
05:37 Conditions for life
07:11 Rare Earth hypothesis
08:02 Biosignatures and technosignatures
10:54 SETI
11:55 METI
12:41 The Dark Forest hypothesis
14:16 Long-distance communication

Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/the-big-think-interview/david-kipping-extraterrestrials/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description

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About David Kipping:

David Kipping is an Associate Professor of Astronomy at Columbia University and the founding director of the Cool Worlds Laboratory, where he leads groundbreaking research on exoplanets, exomoons, and the search for extraterrestrial life. As a pioneer in the detection of moons around planets outside our solar system, his work has been published in prestigious scientific journals and has significantly advanced our understanding of distant planetary systems. Kipping employs sophisticated statistical methods to analyze data from NASA’s Kepler and TESS missions, extracting subtle signals that reveal the properties of these distant worlds. Beyond academia, he created and hosts the popular Cool Worlds YouTube channel, which has attracted over 750,000 subscribers through its accessible explorations of cosmic frontiers and speculative astronomy. After receiving his PhD from University College London and holding positions at Harvard University, Kipping has established himself as a respected researcher who effectively bridges rigorous scientific investigation with compelling public science communication.

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