Title: Identification and exploration of a network of habitable worlds

Speaker: Fabo Feng (Univ. of Hertfordshire, UK)

Time: Jan 23 (Tuesday), 3pm

Location: room 1715, 17th floor

Abstract: The past decade has seen the discovery of thousands of exoplanets, serious endeavor from Breakthrough Initialtives to launch a nano spacecraft for interstellar travel, and Gaia's precise measurements of positions and velocities for one billion stars. Based on these progresses, I simulate the motions of stars to identify a network of stellar encounters and to study their formation, evolution and interaction. From this stellar network, I identify a network of habitable worlds by detecting and characterizing Earth-like planets and studying their habitability. This habitable world network is studied numerically using network theory to explore optimal routes for interstellar travel and to solve the Fermi-Hart paradox in a robust way.