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Exoplanets are planets just like the planets
in our solar system, but they orbit around
other stars, such as the stars you can see in the sky.
Personally, I think it's very important to study them
because it gives us context to our place in the universe.
Planets come in a much, much more diverse range
of properties than just what we see in the Solar System.
I see astrophysics and searching for exoplanets
as intrinsically exploratory.
We want to understand everything about the universe and the type
of objects that are out there.
It tells us whether Earth is special,
whether the Solar System is special,
and it's like a family tree.
We're populating it, and seeing the little branches,
and seeing which planets are closer
to us, which ones are cousins, which ones are relatives.
Now we are able to search for atmospheres just
like the atmosphere of the Earth,
but around other smaller rocky planets, around other stars.
With so many exoplanets out there,
it really depends too on ...
It really depends on what questions we want to answer.
Are we going to be focused purely on rocky planets,
or should we expand our search to larger planets, which could
also be potentially habitable?
The other thing that I'm really excited about
is learning about a new type of planet
that we have evidence for that's called "water world".
And we theorized the existence of these worlds,
which are mostly water, which are water dominated.
We don't see the surface of these planets.
So, everything we can say about the surface,
we infer from looking at the atmosphere.
You can actually detect atmospheric features
in this planet.
I am particularly very excited to see
if there's any underlying behavior
in our population of planets.
Are they linked by some sort of rule?
Is there a rule for how planets work?
Like, the Holy Grail is "are we alone?"
So, for the longest time, we weren't sure
if Webb was actually going to answer that question.
On Earth, our concept of life changes depending on cultures,
depending on history.
So, I am certain that by the end of the lifetime of JWST,
we will have a different idea of what life means,
and Webb will help inform that.