Title: 

Beginnings, Boundaries, Belief, Beyond: Building the Search for Life on Other Worlds

 

Abstract: 

The search for life on rocky planets is one of the main goals of exoplanet science, but the best targets are also the hardest to observe and interpret. In this talk, I present my research program as a path toward a reliable biosignature search, organized around four steps: planetary beginnings, the boundaries of habitability, when atmospheric evidence can be trusted and the tools needed to reach the right planets. 

 

I use ultra-hot Jupiters, directly imaged planet, and benchmark substellar objects as pathfinder systems for developing the physics, methods and observation strategies that future biosignature studies will need. I will discuss work on atmospheric composition and planet formation, volatile content and atmospheric loss, tests of retrieval methods across different kinds of data and new high-contrast instrumentation for future direct imaging. Together, these projects help lay the groundwork for studying temperate rocky planets in a more careful and convincing way.