How Exoplanetary Science Is Powering Planetary Defense — with Julien de Wit

What if the telescopes that reveal alien worlds could also help us protect our own? 

This MIT Alumni Forum with EAPS Associate Professor Julien de Wit PhD ’14 will take us on a journey across two frontiers of planetary science: the search for life beyond Earth and the quest to safeguard our planet from celestial threats.

Thanks to breathtaking visuals from the James Webb Space Telescope and advanced image-processing techniques, you’ll witness the cosmos in ways never before possible—from the atmospheric fingerprints of distant exoplanets to the faintest, bus-sized asteroids hiding in our solar system’s main belt.

These tiny cosmic wanderers hold big secrets: the origins of our planet, the pathways of near-Earth objects, and strategies to refine impact-risk models—like the recent study of asteroid 2024 YR4, which drew global attention.

Discover how two seemingly separate missions—finding life among the stars and protecting life on Earth—are intertwined scientific endeavors, with profound implications for habitability, risk, and planetary stewardship.

Moderated by EAPS Research Scientist Artem Burdanov.

Register to attend this live stream presentation!

Alumni and students: register to attend using your Infinite Connection account.

Current students and postdocs: sign up for an Infinite Connection account at MITAA — it’s free!

Faculty, staff, and friends of the department: please contact Megan Cokely for information on how to attend!

Visit the MIT Alumni Association’s Alumni Forum page to screen past event recordings and find listings for more upcoming talks.