“Are We Alone in the Universe?” with Emily L. Rice

Emily L. Rice, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Engineering Science & Physics, College of Staten Island, City University of New York, will present “Are We Alone in the Universe?”

The answer to the question “Are we alone in the Universe?” might rely on some unexpected characters: stars much cooler than the Sun, planets larger and hotter than Jupiter, and enigmatic in-between objects called “brown dwarfs.” I will describe all of these objects in the context of searching for potentially habitable exoplanets and my research on the atmospheres of low-mass stars, brown dwarfs, and directly-imaged exoplanets. Time permitting, I will describe my innovative outreach projects, which incorporate fashion and performance into science communication.