How did we go from knowing a handful of planets in our own solar system to confirming thousands of worlds around other stars?

This episode traces the story of exoplanets, from ancient “wanderers” in the night sky to the modern methods astronomers use to detect worlds we usually can’t see directly. We talk Galileo, Jupiter’s moons, hot Jupiters, pulsar planets, lava worlds, water worlds, rogue planets, Planet 9, and why the universe keeps handing us planets we never expected.

Hosted by Dr. Dakotah Tyler.

Lead with curiosity.

This episode starts with the story behind the science: how a football injury, a lost sense of identity, and a Cosmos documentary helped send me toward astronomy and exoplanet research.

From there, we get into what my dissertation was actually about: atmospheric mass loss for close-in exoplanets. That means planets getting blasted by radiation from their stars, losing gas over time, and sometimes leaving behind clues we can detect from Earth. We talk Mars, Venus, hot Jupiters, helium escape, WASP-69b, the radius gap, young planets, and why understanding atmospheres matters for the search for life.

Lead with curiosity.