Gresham College Lectures Alien Earths: What Makes Us Special? - Professor Chris Lintott
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Feb 10, 2026 A lively tour of how exoplanet discoveries reshaped our picture of planetary systems. Topics include the approaching 10,000th exoplanet milestone, oddball worlds like hot Jupiters and lava planets, and how disks and migration sculpt planetary orbits. The lecture covers surprising demographics from Kepler, JWST’s atmospheric finds, rogue planets, and the role of citizen scientists in spotting the strange.
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Survey Widely And Watch Continuously
- Use wide-field, long-duration monitoring (like Kepler) to detect small, periodic transit dips across many stars.
- Measure dip depth for planet size and period for orbital period to build population statistics.
Most Common Planets Aren't In Our Solar System
- Kepler revealed super-Earths/mini-Neptunes are the most common planets, types absent from our solar system.
- The planet radius distribution shows a gap near 1.5–2 Earth radii, implying distinct formation pathways.
Radius Gap Reveals Formation Race
- The radius gap suggests a split between rocky super-Earths and gaseous mini-Neptunes driven by formation timing and gas availability.
- Planet cores that form early accrete gas and become mini-Neptunes; slower cores remain rocky.
