Planetary Scientist Professor Lena Noack to Receive Funding from the European Research Council with an ERC Consolidator Grant

Geoscientist at Freie Universität Berlin to receive almost two million euros to research rocky exoplanets. Planetary scientist Lena Noack Image Credit: private / Lena Noack Professor Lena Noack from the Institute of Geological Sciences at Freie Universität Berlin has been selected for an ERC Consolidator Grant by the European Research Council. The planetary scientist will receive over 1.99 million euros over the course of five years to carry out her research project "DIVerse Exoplanet Redox State Estimations - DIVERSE." In her research she will address the diversity of rocky planets (the planetary siblings of Earth, Mars, and Venus) in other solar systems. The European Research Council awards ERC Consolidator Grants to promising scientists and scholars who completed their doctorates between seven and twelve years ago and now find themselves in the "consolidation phase" of their academic careers. The James Webb Space Telescope and upcoming Ariel space telescope have opened up new exciting prospects in observational astronomy, making it possible to study exoplanetary atmospheres in greater depth. Planetary scientist Lena Noack is now planning on making use of the opportunities unlocked by these new technologies: "Many studies on exoplanets tend to focus on biosignatures. For example, the presence of specific atmospheric gases can only be explained by the existence of life on Earth.