Fwd: Special Riverside Astronomical Society speaker on March 21 - please come!
Tytan Campbell
From: Richard Debus <deb...@ucr.edu>
Date: Thu, Mar 12, 2026 at 9:35 PM
Subject: Special Riverside Astronomical Society speaker on March 21 - please come!
To: Tytan Campbell <pres...@temeculavalleyastronomers.com>
Hi Tytan,
On March 21, the Riverside Astronomical Society is hosting another exciting speaker at its monthly meeting: Dr. Jessie Christiansen, Chief Scientist of the NASA Exoplanet Institute at Caltech. Her Title is “The Search for Earth 2.0: Why We Think It Exists and How We’re Going to Find It.” Could you distribute the attached flyer to your members and perhaps display it in an upcoming newsletter or at an upcoming meeting? I have attached both pdf and jpg versions of the flyer for these purposes. I have also attached a map to the meeting room at La Sierra University in Riverside The meeting is free and parking is free.
In addition to the flyer, I include below a brief biography of Jessie Christiansen and a brief abstract of her talk.
Thanks!
Best Wishes,
Rick Debus, President
Riverside Astronomical Society
Speaker’s Bio: Dr. Jessie Christiansen is the Chief Scientist of the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute at Caltech. After obtaining her PhD at the UNSW in 2008, she did her postdoc at Harvard University before moving to NASA Ames in California in 2010 to work on the NASA Kepler mission. She subsequently joined the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute in 2013, where she has worked on the NASA Kepler, K2, TESS, Roman, and UVEX missions, and is helping plan for NASA’s next big flagship mission - Habitable Worlds Observatory. Dr. Christiansen’s research is in the detection and characterization of exoplanets - planets around other stars - and studies of exoplanet populations. She is married to fellow astronomer, Philip Hopkins, a professor at Caltech, and also wrangles eleven-year-old twins, two cats, and a dog in their house in the foothills of Los Angeles.
Speaker’s Abstract: For thousands of years, we’ve wondered if the Earth is unique, or if there are other Earths out there to find. In just the last 30 years, we’ve progressed from merely wondering if planets exist around other stars to knowing that almost every star we see has planets. Ambitious planet searches have been probing further and further, finding planetary systems of an incredible – and incredibly surprising! – variety. However, we have yet to discover another planet that might be like Earth – a rocky planet orbiting just the right distance from a Sun-like star to have liquid water on its surface. NASA has an audacious new plan for a next-generation flagship telescope that will directly image Earth-like planets around nearby stars, but it will take all of our ingenuity and technical prowess to achieve this incredible feat. Dr Christiansen will walk you through the past, present, and future of our hunt for Earth 2.0.
The meeting is free and parking is free. See attached for map to E. E. Cossentine Hall at La Sierra University.
For more information, contact Rick Debus pres...@rivastro.org.
Richard J. Debus, Professor and Lead Faculty Undergraduate Advisor for Biochemistry
Department of Biochemistry
University of California, Riverside
https://profiles.ucr.edu/app/home/profile/debusrj
