The hunt for habitable exoplanets, and how a warming world could intensify urban air pollution

Science Magazine Podcast

Science Podcast

News Commentary, News, Science

4.2 • 791 Ratings

🗓️ 20 June 2024

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this week’s show: Scientists are expanding the hunt for habitable exoplanets to bigger worlds, and why improvements in air quality have stagnated in Los Angeles, especially during summer, despite cleaner cars and increased regulations Staff Writer Daniel Clery joins producer Meagan Cantwell to talk through the major contenders for habitable exoplanets—from Earth-like rocky planets to water worlds. Preliminary results from two rocky exoplanets have some researchers concerned about whether they will be able to detect atmospheres around planets orbiting turbulent stars. Next, producer Ariana Remmel talks with Eva Pfannerstill, an atmospheric chemist at the Jülich Research Center, about how volatile organic compounds, mostly from plants, are causing an increase in air pollution during hot days in Los Angeles. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy. About the Science Podcast Authors: Daniel Clery; Meagan Cantwell; Arianna Remmel Episode page: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.zxi Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is a science podcast for June 21st, 2024.
0:09.0	I'm Megan Cantwell, filling in for Sarah Crespi.
0:12.0	First up this week, staff writer Dan Cleary joins me to talk about the hunt for habitable exoplanets.
0:17.0	What started as a search focused on Earth-like rocky planets is expanding to planets
0:22.2	with thicker atmospheres, or even planets wrapped entirely in water. Next, producer
0:27.9	Ariana Remmel talks to researcher Eva Fannerschdell, about an unexpected source of volatile organic
0:34.0	compounds, causing air quality to worsen on hot days in Los Angeles.
0:43.1	If you were to be on one of the planets in the Trappist One system, what would that be like?
0:48.5	What would that feel like?
0:49.8	Living on one of these planets around Trappist One would be very bizarre to us. You'd be living in
0:57.7	this sort of strip around the border of nighttime and daytime in perpetual sunset. The other thing
1:04.6	that would be very peculiar would be the other planets because they're all very bunched close together.
1:10.7	When one came close,
1:12.6	it would be larger than the moon. If more than one of those planets were inhabited, you would
1:18.3	be able to see the lights of towns and buildings and so on on a neighboring planet as it drifted
1:24.9	by. It would be a strange, very science fiction-like existence
1:29.2	living on one of these planets. There's no doubt that living on a planet in the Trappist 1 system,
1:34.8	41 light years away from Earth, would be nothing like existence as we know it. But that doesn't
1:41.0	rule out the possibility that there could be some sort of life present.
1:49.2	This week in science, staff reporter Dan Cleary wrote about the hunt for other Earth-like planets and the hurdles that researchers have faced so far in this pursuit.
1:53.7	Thank you so much for joining me on the podcast, Dan.
1:55.8	Yeah, my pleasure.
	...

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