Jessie Christiansen

Dr. Jessie Christiansen is the Chief Scientist of the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute and a Project Scientist of the NASA Exoplanet Archive at Caltech/IPAC.

Talk title: “Searching for Exoplanets with the Habitable Worlds Observatory”

Abstract: One of the most exciting endeavors in astronomy is the search for Earth 2.0 - a potentially habitable rocky planet, in the habitable zone of a Sun-like star. So far such a discovery has eluded us, but the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) has set this ambitious target in its sights. In this talk I will cover the history of the search for Earth 2.0, the motivation for HWO, the path forward to a successful mission, and some of the exciting potential science cases HWO will uncover.