Lisa Messeri Assistant Professor, Department of Engineering and Society, University of Virginia
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (Washington, DC)
Since 1995, astronomers have detected over 3,000 planets orbiting other stars, or exoplanets. What compels astronomers to comb the universe in search of relatively small, cosmically insignificant globs of gas, rock, and ice? Why have several devoted their careers to finding a planet that is just like Earth? This talk draws from ethnographic fieldwork with the exoplanet community to recount not only the competing quests to find Earth’s twin, but also the human meanings and desires that underpin these endeavors. Drawing from her observations and discussions with astronomers at a Chilean observatory and during a science meeting for NASA’s Kepler mission, Messeri will address the changing role of the observatory in astronomical practice, how doing astronomy forces one to simultaneously grapple with the sublime and the mundane, and ultimately how the human desire to find another home in the universe lies at the heart of exoplanet astronomy.
For further information, please contact: Tom Lassman at 202-633-2419; lassmant@si.edu.
NON-SMITHSONIAN VISITORS MUST RSVP NO LATER THAN 48 HOURS BEFORE THE SEMINAR. On the day of the seminar, please report to the South Security Desk at the Museum’s Independence Avenue entrance. Those holding SI ID badges may proceed directly to the Director’s Conference Room on the 3rd floor.