Abstract

The talk is free to attend and open to all. For those who are not members of Trinity, somekne will be letting people in at the Great Gate of the college 5 minutes before the talk.

Abstract: Thousands of planets have been discovered around stars other than our Sun. But how do these exo-planets form, and why are they so different from those in our own solar system? Which ingredients are available to build them? Thanks to powerful new telescopes, including the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers can now zoom in to planetary construction sites and study their composition. Water and asurprisingly rich variety of organic materials are found near forming stars, including simple sugars, ethers and alcohols. Can they form the basis for life elsewhere in the universe?