Our public lecture series topic for 8 p.m. ET May 5 is "The Construction of Alien Worlds."

Only two decades after the first planets outside our solar system were discovered, we now know of over 5000 planets and planet candidates. A few of them are even Earth-sized! But would we want to live there? How do planets form around other stars, how long does it take, and what are they made out of? What is the true variety of planets found in stellar systems in the universe? Is the universe is teeming with life, or are habitable planets rare gems amongst an endless series of incredibly hostile environments? Using observations from the latest state-of-the-art NASA and ESA space telescopes, Dr. Green will review the fields of protoplanets and their transformation into exoplanets, and describe the exciting discoveries we expect to make in the near future.