Physical Society Colloquium

Searching and characterizing nearby habitable worlds

René Doyon

Departement de Physique
Univeristé de Montréal

This year celebrates the 20^th anniversary of the first detection of an exoplanet around a normal star. Detecting exoplanets has become a routine. Exoplanets are detected through of variety of techniques all complementary with one another. More than 2000 exoplanets have now been unambiguously unveiled along many more thousands of strong candidates. These detections include a growing number of relatively small planets orbiting within the habitable zone of their host star. Those are prime candidates to search for life outside the solar system. This talk will present a brief overview of exoplanet detection techniques and how the physical properties of these systems can be constrained. I will then discuss upcoming facilities, both on the ground and in space, that will enable not only the detection of the nearest habitable worlds but also the study of their atmosphere, a key stepping-stone is our quest for life beyond the solar system. It is reasonable to expect that, within the next decade, one will have identified many of the nearest habitable worlds located within a few tens of light years from the Sun and, more exciting, that we will have secured some constraints on the atmospheric composition for some of them.