Prior to the event at London’s ExCel centre, he told Express.co.uk of his excitement at the possibilities offered by the James Webb Space Telescope, which experts say will actually be able to analyse the environments of exoplanets to detect signs of life once operational.
Professor Didier Queloz, who has identified numerous exoplanets as part of the Astrophysics Group at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, will deliver his presentation, entitled Exoplanets, on the hunt of universal life, on Friday.
He said: “The idea is to approach it in a pragmatic way, because this field is full of surprises.
“I believe we can go through it a simple way and explain how and why it happened and what makes it such a cool topic.”
The James Webb Space Telescope is due to be launched by NASA in 2021.
Scientists hope once it comes online, they will be able to use complex techniques to detect tell-tale “biosignatures” on distant planets which could indicate processes connected with life.
Professor Queloz said: “We have an extensive to-do list of what we would like to do, and this device will give us access to the atmosphere of the planet.
“It is a big telescope and the Infrared will allow us to detect for example molecules, like water and co2, footprints of what the atmosphere is made of.
“The James Webb telescope is a good step in the right direction of what we are trying to explore.”
Professor Queloz said he would use his talk to outline the objectives of planet-hunters in the next few years.
He explained: “We’re trying to move to better understand planet structure and atmosphere.
“For example we can build up a global pattern of global statistics to compare different stars and planets so there will be a global understanding of the farming process.
“But also there are about 100 nearby stars and we want to understand what their planets look like.
“It is far more interesting to identify life on the nearby stars than on the far end of the galaxy.
“We can surely do much more when it’s near.”
And speaking of near, Mr Queloz said while his focus over the years had been on planets outside our solar system, the obvious place to start to look for signs of life was on our doorstep, in galactic terms at least.
He said: “Mars is the kind of close copy of the early earth. I don’t see how life hasn’t happened on Mars.
“We know there is water on Mars but we’ve never seriously looked down into Mars.
“Within the next decades, considering our space technology, it is certainly the best place where one could hope to detect something, if there is something.”
The first exoplanet was confirmed in 1992, since then well over 3,000 have been discovered.
According to some estimates, there are 11 billion potentially habitable Earth-sized planets in the Milky Way and possibly more.
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