Application of Geosciences to Exoplanets

The first exoplanet around a Sun-like star, 51 Pegasi b, was discovered 25 years ago by two Swiss astronomers who received the Physics Nobel Prize only a couple of months ago. In these 25 years, every discovery in exoplanet science has baffled observers and challenged theorists. With advanced telescopes, the 2020s bring us opportunities to characterize Earth-like exoplanets. To accurately interpret new data on exoplanets, the tools and techniques in geosciences have a key role to play. In this talk, I will introduce some laboratory and computational methods in geophysics and geochemistry that are getting attention in the exoplanet science community. I will show how these techniques enhance our understanding of the diversity and interior and surface properties of exoplanets.