Blaauw Lecture 2025

Every year, the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute organizes the Blaauw Lecture.
This is a lecture by an internationally renowned astronomer which everyone, including the general public, can attend. The level of the lecture is such that everyone should be able to understand it.

Professor Laura Kreidberg of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, will give the Blaauw lecture 2025.

Tickets are available via Studium Generale Groningen

Copernicus Revisited: is the Earth special?

Nearly 500 years ago, Nicolas Copernicus published his disruptive theory that Earth is not the center of the universe. The idea that earth is not a particularly remarkable planet held fast for centuries. In the last two decades, a new test of this ‘Copernican Principle’ has emerged, resulting in the discovery of an abundance of planets orbiting other stars. These discoveries allow us to put Earth in context like never before. Thanks to the revolutionary capabilities of the James Webb Space Telescope, researchers are now able to study other Earth-sized planets in detail, particularly by searching for and characterizing their atmospheres.

During this year’s Blaauw Lecture, Laura Kreidberg will give a status report on JWST observations of rocky planets. She will cover the latest results for the iconic TRAPPIST-1 system, the study of the surface of the airless planet LHS 3844b, the search for atmospheres on lava worlds, and observations of planets in the radius valley, at the boundary of rocky and gaseous worlds. Taken together, these results provide a first glimpse of the building blocks available for the origin of life on terrestrial planets beyond the Solar System, offering essential context for understanding how special Earth really is.