Global scientists gather in Vietnam to look beyond solar system

More than 70 scientists from around the world are in Vietnam for a series of conferences to explore planets outside our eight-strong solar system.

The annual Meeting Vietnam (Rencontres du Vietnam) event opened on Monday at the International Center of Interdisciplinary Science Education in Quy Nhon in the central coastal province of Binh Dinh, with the theme “Exoplanetary Science”.

Scientists from 20 countries at the event said that studies outside the Earth's solar system have become an active part of astrophysics, which looks into the diversity and wide range of the universe for the purpose of finding life away from the blue planet.

The five-day event will include 10 presentations and multiple discussions between observers in the field. The first two days were open to students.

France-based physicist Tran Thanh Van (R), founder of Meeting Vietnam, talks with scientists at the Exoplanetary Science conference in Quy Nhon on February 26, 2018. Photo by Binh Dinh Online

Professor Guillaume Hébrard from the Paris Institute of Astrophysics (Institut d'astrophysique de Paris), who is chairing the 14th Meeting Vietnam, said scientists will share their latest research to provide new knowledge as well as observation methods for extrasolar planets, Binh Dinh Online reported.

Professor Tran Thanh Van, a leading physicist at France’s National Center for Scientific Research, founded Meeting Vietnam as an association of local and international scientists. It has been organizing international seminars in Quy Nhon since 2000 and became an annual event in 2011, with support from local authorities and Vietnam’s Ministry of Science and Technology.

Scientists have been holding exoplanetary discussions since 2014.