From the Astrobiology Lectures listserv comes this announcement for Friday’s astrobiology lecture at STScI:

Friday, December 10, 2010 at 12:30 p.m. in the John Bahcall Auditorium – STScI (Light lunch provided and discussion at 12:00 p.m., talk at 12:30 p.m.) For more information see http://astrobiology.stsci.edu

Speaker: James Kasting, Penn State University
Title: HOW TO FIND A HABITABLE PLANET

Abstract: Over 400 planets have been found around nearby stars, but none of them is thought to be at all like Earth. The goal now is to identify rocky planets within the habitable zones of their stars and to search their atmospheres spectroscopically for signs of life. To do this, we need new space-based telescopes such as NASA’s proposed Terrestrial Planet Finders or ESA’s Darwin mission (all of which are indefinitely postponed at the moment). If spectra of extrasolar planet atmospheres can be obtained, the presence of O2, which is produced from photosynthesis, or O3, which is produced photochemically from O2, would under most circumstances provide strong evidence for life beyond Earth. But “false positives” for life may also exist, and these need to be clearly delineated in advance of such missions, if at all possible. I will also contrast my optimism about the search for complex life with the more pessimistic view expressed by Ward and Brownlee in their book, Rare Earth.

Webcast & Telecon Information:
We will webcast this talk via streaming video. Please make sure that your computer has RealPlayer, Windows Media Player, or VLC configured. For further information, please visit our website: astrobiology.stsci.edu.

Note that we also provide a telecon access to the talk: we recommend using this phone connection over the audio feed from the streaming video for its higher quality, robustness and possibility for participation in the discussion.

If you plan to connect, please send your phone number to apai@stsci.edu at least a day prior to the meeting.

Reminder: Please help keep the Bahcall Auditorium clean. Thank you.