Kavli Prize Laureate Lectures
Kavli Prize Laureate Lectures
Astrophysics
David Charbonneau and Sara Seager are awarded the 2024 Kavli Prize in Astrophysics for their discoveries of exoplanets and the characterization of their atmospheres. As part of the Kavli Prize Week program, they will give lectures about their research at Oslo Science Library, University of Oslo.
David Charbonneau
David Charbonneau is Fred Kavli Professor of Astrophysics at Harvard University. He led the team that used the transit method to discover a giant exoplanet (HD 209458b). He pioneered the application of space-based observatories to perform the first studies of the atmosphere of giant extrasolar planets. This new method measures the tiny amount of light blocked by such a planet as it passes in front of its host star. Charbonneau has also used the transit method to study exoplanetary atmospheres, measuring molecular spectra using both filtered starlight and infrared emission from the planets themselves. He demonstrated these two approaches with observations from the Hubble Space Telescope in 2002 and the Spitzer Space Telescope three years later.
Sara Seager
Sara Seager is Professor of Astrophysics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She pioneered the theoretical study of planetary atmospheres and predicted the presence of atomic and molecular species detectable by transit spectroscopy, most notably the alkali gases. She predicted how transits could be used to measure atomic and molecular characteristics in exoplanetary atmospheres, which is crucial for identifying biomarkers – signs of life. Seager made outstanding contributions to the understanding of planets with masses below that of Neptune. She also carried out extensive research on starshades – enormous petal-like structures designed to shield space observatories from the glare of a faraway Sun-like star – and was among the first to recognize their importance in detecting and characterizing the faint light from any Earth-like planet orbiting the star.