2023-08-12 09:05:00
Where does this passion for the stars come from? The cinema?
“The first movie that changed my perception of the universe was ET. I saw it when I was eight years old and after that I started looking at the stars thinking that maybe there were beings out there who could come and visit me. Very young, I asked myself many questions about the possibility of finding life elsewhere in the universe. but I found science lessons very boring and the way physics was taught disgusted me more than anything else. I didn’t feel any magic and I couldn’t see myself having a career in science. My biology teacher told me that science wasn’t for me. When I finished high school, I had no idea what I wanted to do so, as I liked sports, I decided to join the army.”
How did you move from the military to astrophysics?
“I was in the infantry, I went to the former Yugoslavia among other places. I did this for several years. I found it exciting but after a while I got sick. I found myself in an office and as I was getting bored, I started reading popular science books. When I was 23, I decided to take a course in cell biology at university as a free student, then I resumed studies in biology at the University of Liège. As my health was not great, I found myself retired from the army. So I found myself in conditions that allowed me to study full time and I fell in love with what I was studying. After biology, I turned to biochemistry and physics and when I had to choose a field for a doctoral thesis, the field of exoplanets was in full development. So I did a doctorate in astrophysics partially devoted to exoplanets.”
Liège – Institute of Astrophysics: Michaël Gillon, astronomer and astrophysicist, discoverer of the TRAPPIST system In Liège, July 27, 2023 ©JC Guillaume
In 2017, you made a scientific discovery that was relayed around the world. What impact did this discovery have on your career?
“On a personal level, it’s clear that a big discovery is a plus. In fact, it mainly had an impact in terms of funding and the number of students who want to do work with me. It also allowed me to attract private sponsors. But on a personal level, notoriety is very limited. I can still go shopping without being recognized!”
Why is the study of exoplanets so important?
“An exoplanet is a planet that orbits a star other than the sun. At the time of the Copernican revolution, it was already known that the earth was not the center of the universe and a scientist then hypothesized that the stars were suns and must have their own planets, potentially inhabited. It took until the end of the twentieth century to have the technology to detect exoplanets and it led to a real revolution. Now, exoplanets have become a field of study in their own right and we are getting closer and closer to discovering earth’s twin planets that could harbor life.
Image provided on February 22, 2017 by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) showing the view above the surface of one of the planets of the TRAPPIST-1 system
©European Southern Observatory/AFP/Archives
What form of life can we hope to discover?
“When we talk about detecting forms of life, we are mainly talking about detecting a certain composition of the atmosphere which could only be explained by biological activity. We are not going to have a form of life in a test tube but we could have proof that there is somewhere photosynthesis or a huge release of methane which would attest to the presence of microorganisms.
We are far from ET the extraterrestrial.
“What we could find are very simple chemical traces, simply because we are not able to go that far or to send probes to carry out very detailed studies. It has a frustrating side but exoplanets are not our only options to discover life.
Have you heard from teachers who tried to talk you out of studying science when you were in high school? It must have been weird seeing you on TV when Trappist-1 was discovered.
“No, not at all! I got knowledge messages from the military but not from my high school teachers.”
Liège – Institute of Astrophysics: Michaël Gillon, astronomer and astrophysicist, discoverer of the TRAPPIST system In Liège, July 27, 2023 ©JC Guillaume
How did the acronym TRAPPIST originate?
In 2009, I had the idea of a small robotic telescope to observe the transits of exoplanets. I wanted to give it a name that would be sympathetic and reflect the Belgian character. As Transiting Planet starts with TRAP, it came naturally.
Traveling in space like Thomas Pesquet, is that something you want?
“When I go to an amusement park, I get sick. I know my inner ear wouldn’t allow me to go into space so I don’t have that urge. Now, the view must be extraordinary, that’s for sure! And this kind of mission brings magic to people in a scary world and gives vocations to young people. It’s not the happiest time for humans young or old so the fact that there is still a little bit of magic and that it comes from science, it’s very nice!”
What do you think of Elon Musk’s plans to send humans to Mars or the Moon?
“I don’t see the point of sending humans to Mars. It’s human nature to want to push the limits all the time and to want to go where no one has gone before, but it’s more symbolic than scientific in my opinion. Above all, he wants to see his name in the history books.”
What would life on Mars be like for a human?
“Imagine the worst place on earth… Let’s say Antarctica in winter. Well it’s still much more habitable than Mars. Mars is not at all habitable: there is no atmosphere there, the radiation there is terrible… Living on Mars means living in a bunker under the ground. What is the point ?”
Liège – Institute of Astrophysics: Michaël Gillon, astronomer and astrophysicist, discoverer of the TRAPPIST system In Liège, July 27, 2023 ©JC Guillaume
Sounds a bit megalomaniac.
“This is reflected in all of Elon Musk’s projects. Sending humans into space is a feat, that’s for sure. But I don’t see the point of it. When we didn’t have access to all the robotic technology and artificial intelligence, we could still tell ourselves that sending humans into space was the only possible way to explore the nearby environment. But now it doesn’t hold anymore. Betting everything on robots would cost a lot less and offer a lot more scientific return.”
So he has illusions about the possibilities of living elsewhere the day the earth really becomes uninhabitable?
“The idea of a plan B is grotesque. Even if we had the possibility of interstellar travel, we would only reach uninhabitable planets. Even if there is life there, it will be different from ours. Our immune system could not cope with organisms it does not know. Talking about a plan B is as preposterous as saying the earth is flat.”
Unfortunately these are theories that circulate.
“Yes, these are ideas that spread very quickly, especially on social networks. Humanity is facing an extraordinary problem that it has never faced and which could lead to its extinction and we have no solution. Given what we are going through, all countries should get around the table to work and yet we are not managing to get an adequate reaction.
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