Lecture at the Science and the Cosmos Museum on Friday, 25th July 2025, at 17:00. In English with no translation.
Less than 30 years ago, we did not know if planets existed outside our solar system. Yet, by 2024, astronomers had discovered over 7,000 planets orbiting around other stars similar to our Sun, including some that could have the right conditions to harbour life. Upon learning that planet formation seems to coincide with the birth of stars, we began to wonder:
What happens to planetary systems when their host stars run out of fuel and become Earth-sized white dwarfs?
Are these systems detectable, if they exist?
What will happen to our solar system and to Earth?
And what are the potential implications for life?
These are the questions that Boris Gänsicke will address in his talk at the Science and the Cosmos Museum.
SPEAKER Boris Gänsicke
Boris Gänsicke is a Professor of Experimental Physics at the University of Warwick. He earned his doctorate at the University of Göttingen (Germany) and later moved to Southampton (UK) as a PPARC Advanced Fellow.
In 2003, he became one of the founding members of the Astronomy and Astrophysics group at the University of Warwick (UK), where he continues his work. His research focuses on white dwarfs in various contexts, including the progenitors (and remnants) of thermonuclear supernovae and the final stages of planetary systems. For these studies, he has worked with the Hubble Space Telescope as well as the largest telescopes on Earth.
He currently holds an ERC Advanced Grant for the study of planetary systems around white dwarfs and is a visitor at the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands through a programme co-funded by the Occident Foundation.
