Exoplanets

Guest Speaker

Thursday, 7th May 2026 (19:45 - 22:00)

Venue: Hybrid

Are we alone in the universe? Join us for a fascinating talk by Dr Richard Booth as he dives into the rapidly expanding world of exoplanets — the thousands of planets now known to orbit stars beyond our Sun.

Dr Booth will explore how astronomers discover these distant worlds, what their incredible diversity reveals about how planetary systems form, and how new observations are helping us identify planets that could potentially host life. From scorching gas giants to rocky Earth-like planets, this talk will highlight some of the most exciting discoveries in modern astronomy and what they mean for our understanding of our place in the cosmos.

Perfect for space enthusiasts, science fans, and anyone curious about worlds beyond our own — this is a journey you won’t want to miss!

Join online if you can't meet us at the meeting room HERE

Speaker: Richard Booth

I study planet formation and the 'protoplanetary' discs in which the planets form. I build theory and computer models to explain the physics involved. Previously, I was a post-doc at Imperial and, before that, at the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge.

One of the biggest mysteries today is how solids grow from the micron sizes seen in the interstellar medium to become fully-formed planets. This field is currently undergoing an observational revolution driven by the arrival of the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), which is probing the gas and solids in protoplanetary discs with unprecedented resolution and sensitivity. This is set to continue in the near future with the arrival of the James Webb Space Telescope and the Extremely Large Telescopes. The challenge today is to understand what these exquisite observations can tell us about the physics of planet formation.