This is your best recent interview. Dr. Welbanks was clear, straightforward, and gave interesting, well-framed direct answers about an interesting topic. Happy New Year!

People will always get disappointed when finding out that we don''t have the capability of taking high definition pictures of exo planets with our current technology but once you understand the vastness of space and the fact these exo planets are basically almost impossible to see due to the fact that they are being out shined by their stars, it is basically a miracle that we will be able to assess the atmospheres of these planets and find out their compositions.

The vibes I'm taking away from this video is that 1) Proving without a shadow of a doubt that life exists elsewhere is something that I may not see in my lifetime unless it's a techno signature or if they actually came to visit us. 2) These red dwarf stars are going to be eliminated (for the most part) from our list of potential habitable systems from a planetary perspective because the environments are waaaay to harsh. Exomoons with life in these systems are still in play. Great interview as always, thanks for the content!

What a tense interview! If science were open source instead of being hidden in conferences and subscription journals, couldn't we progress much faster and without all the science field politics?

Damn Fraser. New year gift to all us science nerds. Keep it coming. Really cannot believe that I can watch it for free. Excellent conversation❤

This is great journalism. Thoughtful conversation about the limits of what we can know when exploring the unknown.

So this was about the limits of JWST for examining exoplanets. Could you please also do a video about the limits of JWST for examining the early universe? E. g. what is the highest redshift up to which the JWST could still see a galaxy?

Excellent guest to interview, I learned a lot of important ways to accept the data we hear reported on exoplantes and other observations JWST gives the world of science with the instruments it has.

Great interview… Happy New Year!

Thanks Fraser for a great video, have a wonderful New year. PEACE AND LOVE TO EVERYONE ❤❤.

Really great interview. Thanks Fraser

Great interview!! Should be a very exciting future

Happy new year!

We thought we might have found techno-signatures when we discovered neutron stars, but that was quickly changed to an understanding of the just how strange neutron stars are.

Hopefully we'll get the story of Tabby star from JWST.

Thank you for another fantastic interview. I am super excited for the next few years of exoplanet studies.

No one else has commented that at 18:10 he says "royal we" when he actually meant a regular "we." A royal we is when someone says "we" but means "I," such as a king saying, "We are not amused."

Which groups are working on the question "what is a techno-signature"? (SETI, NASA, ...). Love that word.

Great interview! Loads of good information! I was quite surprised, however, that when discussing future technology in the field of exoplanet research neither of the two participants discusses the HUGE benefits that both terrestrial and space interferometers will provide. Even in spectroscopy there will be big improvements. But the actual imaging of exoplanets, which granted will take a couple/three decades or so get up and running with a resolving power that will allow for actual exoplanet imaging, will be the next great leap forward in the field! My two cents anyway!

Outstanding interview. I hope the researchers don't shy away from sharing studies and evidence of possible biological life on exoplanets. It's solid science, especially when other researchers attempt to replicate the findings or dispute the original conclusions.

Dr Luis is very careful to try not to give wrong info, and not step on any toes, give an objective answer, and keep the excitement about interplanetary science. brilliant man trying to not trying to screw up! Frasier is putting him in a bad spot for Dr Luis, and luis is rocking it!!!! frasier means good, but pressing HARD!

Happy new year Fraser!

What would be the distance from which we could detect New Years fireworks, including oxygen fore fire, and predict that objects rotation around its star?

Pure which is long-term and applied science which is short-term. What is the priority?

Fraser, you help; there is no question.

To answer the questions about habitable worlds and specifically alien life it looks like we are going to need broad qualitative data and fine quantitative data on the various atmospheric gases. Would a 50m space telescope with coronagraph give us that?

Well Wellbanks was talking about M-Dwarfs was he talking about the harsh environment being harsh for atmospheres and life evolving or about how it's just much harder to detect than we expected? On second listen it sounds more like the latter.

Nice picture on the wall. I'd gladly take a boat trip on Titan on my day off. PS it will also save some buck on BBQ gas )

Culture: When and what were the early churches that accepted that there were "people", however they were defined and what they looked like living on other worlds? I think Brigham Young said something. Were there others?

It really is a good time to just buckle up and enjoy the journey. The next few decades are going to be hugely interesting and eventful for the field of astronomy, with all the new tools and funding and interest that are becoming available. The answer to The Big Question may be just around the corner.

JWST, the little telescope that could. A testament to what humanity can do if money is a non-issue. Money well spent imho

this guy had such a warm and inviting voice. i still dont understand anything. but it felt better not understanding this time.

Where can I watch the JWST explorer?

Please, how can I watch what the JWST ? 😊

What if we had a Vera Rubin and a VLT on each pole of the Moon?

Do light stay the same at all the time, i mean if it travels billions of light years it have maby changed over time no?

This ability to do science, a hive mind across many different fields and people coming together to not just detect and determine, but to build a model that will allow the the study to be exponentially more efficient, leading to increased knowledge. It is this and the abilities of people to do science themselves, increasing our overall strength and breadth - that is apparently why we aren't given the data on UAP. For whatever reason, the people who are in charge of the means of collection, have CLAIMED authority over the data gathered from it. This is not just a "lying by omission" type thing, because all FOIA requests are now being completely denied. ALL data from collections that we KNOW exist just from a suite of sensors on a 50 year old jet's on board systems for example. ( video, radar, thermal, acoustic, spectrometric, etal., ) Notwithstanding the data we can very safely assume exists from ""astronomy except for the direction of view."". Basic satellite intelligence (signals INT, imagery INT etal.) Freedom Of Information requests on ALL imagery and sensor intel in regards to UAP are now denied. This isn't a guess, a claim, an over-reaction - they TOLD us this exactly. It's now policy. Why? What is our biggest problem in solving the obvious and well known Unidentified Aireal Phenomena? Lack of data, of course. This could be solved very quickly! So... why is it again we get extremely limited data throughout history, ( mostly from leaks which are subsequentially, begrudgingly confirmed) and now are being denied all related data? I wont speculate but clearly there's some reasoning for that. Snicker if you want. It is not in doubt an unexplained phenomenon exists, nor that data involving it is being withheld. Kind of hard to get global science involved when there's only limited, partial data. It's impossible to determine . I'm not some ideologue - I don't know what it is. I'm increasingly concerned by the actions of our govt. - of the people by the people for the people - extending to so many areas and issues, not just this.

Here is a question you can use in your q&a: how sensitive is the evolution of the universe to speed of light being equal to 300000km/s. How would universe be different if the speed of light was 10 times faster or 10 times slower? I keep thinking of e=mc2. Why does speed of light show up in this equation? Since mass and energy are equivalent, what is the constant of proportionality square of the speed of light. How head speed of light determined at the moment of big bang?

If you observed view of JWST shown at O:48 with the human eye, what would it look like? Would there be enough light to see it?

Probably need more data to increase signal to noise on other Trappist 1 targets

One of the issues that occurs to me is the time dimension. Sure, life began on Earth quite quickly following the return to relatively stable conditions here. A species surveying their stars neighbourhood could well have detected "insert a planet name here" type planets including the Earth. Sent welcoming, friendly radio messages to us, but received no replies, because the dinosaurs that were ruling the planet at the time did not receive them. Life "should be common" but intelligent, communicative life, relatively nearby and currently existing could VERY easily be rare.

This space news I love it

Listening to this, I just want to form the hypothesis, that you need the JWT to find an Astronomer called Billy-Bob in Europe - but apart from that, I totally love this talk. I remember writing a SciFi story back in School with the major plot point, that people found their first exo planet with a (Clark Tech) Telescope - before we on Earth ever have found one ourselves and now we talk about the chemical composition of exo-planet-atmospheres. This makes science and humans so amazing and me pretty old… 😅

Is the published view of the cosmic microwave background the true metric of it's measure? If it is the shell of the bang, It confounds me that if redshift is true, microwaves would comply with that law, and we would see a variation in the distance of the CMB from us, unless we were at the center. or it is so vast, we just seeing fade.

*raises a glass to the null result* oh it's empty, cheers!

Is JWST capable of taking a picture of the earth?

We all know we are going to collide with Andromeda. But how about the other galaxies around us?

In 1963, Bill Bixby came as close as any of us ever will to finding a technologically advanced, intelligent alien. We’re wasting our time trying to do better.

Did I hear this right? The data on Trappist 1d, and whether it has an atmosphere, has been presented at conferences (plural) as preliminary data? As in, that info is already in the public? But not a single attendee at those conferences has spoken to anyone about it? Did attendees have to sign an NDA? Banned from taking notes? Seriously? I've attended many conferences in my own discipline and have never come across anything like this. I've assumed they are taking so long because the data is negative and there is nothing that could be classed as an atmosphere (not even Venus runaway greenhouse effect). The whole "I know something you don't" isn't a good look for the disciplines. Fraser, you might want to have a little dig around and see if the data really has been presented at conferences. There must be submitted Abstracts somewhere.

I'm hoping that JWST finds something older than the universe. That'd be hilarious.

It took me 35 minutes to realize his name wasn’t Dr Lula 😂

Lunch at Applebee's , a banana split followed by a Tequila , or sauced in Burgundies

"My thanks for our existence. We will not disappoint you. From Alpha Centauri B, Brenda Jones 1.1.1."

Sorry Fraser but I just couldn`t make it through the whole video, Maybe get Jessica Anderson or Kate Tice to interview its not that Luis wasnt knowledgable or maybe im just that shallow, or maybe im still hungover from last night lol.

🖖🏼👽 hello

What exactly is the primary purpose for the James Webb telescope? I was under the impression that it's main reason for existence was to shed light on the deepest and most challenging aspects of the early universe? What other tools do we have at our disposal that can shed light on the parameters that Webb can (e.g.- finding what the Universe looks like at the limits of the Webb's instruments might be something worth while to do)! So what is the longest, deepest look that Webb has taken so far...i.e.- how far can it's various instruments actually see and what is to be seen at those distances/times? We spent how many years and how much money...to build an incredibly complex telescope that by the grace of God managed to work beyond expectations and then here we are how long after first light with no all out attempt to find the answers for which the telescope was built? Wouldn't it be an amazing idea to fulfill the telescopes main objectives, first... before something happens that could jeopardize the telescopes visual and and/or spectroscopic limits of discernability or reach only because of reasons not related to the reason it was built. Please do the most important things first...the things that no other instruments can reveal...then go down the list of everybody's pet projects (many of which can be done by much less complex easier to deploy technologies that we can reach with far less costly approaches)!

When JWST..was 1st purposed it was supposed to see structures on exoplanets.. WHERE R Those pics NASA

Publishing null results: Ok scientists, tell me everywhere that intelligent life is NOT located.

Theory and assumptions have been turned on its head by JWST.

❤❤❤

Please, Frasier - i'm sorry - the sensors on JWST are not *powerful* ; they're *sensitive* - they're passive. There's a difference.

990th like!

Lets face it, JWST is nowhere near powerful enough. We need something 1000 more times powerful.,,, I Wish

“James Webb Space Te-le-scope” has the same number of syllables as “Jay-doub-le-you-ess-tee”, so abbreviating it vocally makes no sense. Just call it “the James Webb”, I’m sure we’re able to contextually figure out that your not talking about James Webb’s corpse.

People love Cartoons

aww jwst is a bust, i want to see earth sized planets and space whales

Happy new year !