How to Find a Planet Without Leaving Your Couch

Dr. Chris Lintott is a professor of astrophysics at the University of Oxford, where he is also a research fellow at New College, working on topics from galaxy evolution, transient detection and machine learning. As Principal Investigator of the Zooniverse, he leads a team who run the world's most successful citizen science projects, allowing more than a million people to discover planets, transcribe ancient papyri or explore the Serengeti. Hunting for exoplanets - planets around stars other than the Sun - is a booming astronomical industry. Dr. Lintott will talk about what we know and don’t know, explain how you might find a planet of your own using only a laptop, and discuss the progress of NASA’s TESS planet hunting mission.