Explore Exoplanets - The Discoverers (Episode 16)

Did the movie Avatar predict the discovery of the holy grail of exoplanets: a nearby Earth-like rocky planet orbiting a Sun-like star? Drs. Jessie Christiansen and Ashley Chontos continue their conversation about Ashley's favorite fictional planet—and Jessie reveals whether she's found Pandora's closest real-world analog in the NASA Exoplanet Archive.

Have you ever wondered what it's like to discover a brand-new world? In the last few decades, we've found over 5,000 planets outside our solar system, called exoplanets—and there are likely millions, if not billions, more! Join Dr. Jessie Christiansen, Lead Scientist at the NASA Exoplanet Archive at Caltech IPAC as she interviews the brilliant minds behind the discovery of new planets in "Explore Exoplanets: The Discoverers." Hear about their eureka moments and their favorite fictional planets, which Jessie will match to their closest real-world counterparts in the NASA Exoplanet Archive. Come explore the cosmos, one exoplanet at a time!

Check out all of the Explore Exoplanets episodes on YouTube and the Explore Exoplanets website.