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Our guest this week is Natalie Batalha. Natalie is professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz where received her PhD. Previously, she was a research astronomer in the Space Sciences Division of NASA Ames Research Center. She held the position of Science Team Lead on the Kepler Mission, the first mission capable of finding Earth-size planets around other stars. This mission revolutionised our understanding of planetary systems.

The Kepler Mission discovered thousands of exoplanets revealing that planets are common in the galaxy, not rare and many even lie in the habitable zone.

Natalie is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was listed as one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2017.

We talk about:

• Where is everyone AKA the Fermi Paradox
• What is an exoplanet
• The Drake equation in simple terms
• The revelation that planets like ours are more common than ever imagined
• What was the Kepler mission and what did it achieve?
• Who owns space?
• Will our alien friends be receptive?
• Can we be trusted to become multi-planetary?

Unfortunately, we had a couple of technical issues on this recording but have done our very best to iron them out.

Let’s look through the telescope!

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