Babbage: Hunting for life elsewhere—part one, Didier Queloz

<p>As they stare up into the night sky, astronomers have long wondered whether life exists elsewhere in the universe. For decades, the <a href="https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2023/01/18/ideas-for-finding-et-are-getting-more-inventive?utm_campaign=a.io&amp;utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&amp;utm_source=babbage&amp;utm_content=discovery.content.anonymous.tr_shownotes_na-na_article&amp;utm_term=sa.listeners" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">hunt for extraterrestrial life</a> has focused on <a href="https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2020/07/21/is-there-life-on-mars?utm_campaign=a.io&amp;utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&amp;utm_source=babbage&amp;utm_content=discovery.content.anonymous.tr_shownotes_na-na_article&amp;utm_term=sa.listeners" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Mars</a>, <a href="https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2020/11/12/is-there-really-phosphine-on-venus?utm_campaign=a.io&amp;utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&amp;utm_source=babbage&amp;utm_content=discovery.content.anonymous.tr_shownotes_na-na_article&amp;utm_term=sa.listeners" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Venus</a> and even on the <a href="https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2023/04/05/icy-moons-with-vast-oceans-are-the-latest-candidates-for-alien-life?utm_campaign=a.io&amp;utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&amp;utm_source=babbage&amp;utm_content=discovery.content.anonymous.tr_shownotes_na-na_article&amp;utm_term=sa.listeners" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">various moons</a> of our solar system. But in 1995, that search entered a new phase, when Didier Queloz and Michel Mayor found the first clear evidence of a planet orbiting another star: 51 Pegasi b. Since then, more than 5,000 exoplanets have been found. This week, Alok Jha asks Nobel laureate Dider Queloz, how the “exoplanet revolution” has influenced the search for life elsewhere.</p><br><p>Dider Queloz is the founding director of the Center for the Origin and Prevalence of Life at ETH Zurich and the director of the L