Exoplanets and Astrobiology

Knowledge:

• Understanding of how the simplest elements were formed during Big Bang and how stars have processed them into larger atoms, molecules and solid material during the lifetime of the universe.
• Understanding how we today can measure the conditions and processes that formed our solar system 4.6 Gyr ago, and how we can compare that with the formation of other planetary systems.
• Understand the existing search methods for finding planets around other stars, and being able to compare the results of these methods to the knowledge we have about our own solar system.
• Understand the basic conditions that played a role for the rise of life on Earth, and some theories for how the development to advanced life forms can have taken place.

Skills:
When the course is finished, the student is expected to be able to:

• Explain how the simplest material arose and developed into the complex matter of modern day universe.
• Put our own solar system in context of planetary systems in the Galaxy in general.
• Explain the difference between dead and living material, and explain what is meant by intelligence and by alien life.
• Explain how we at least in principle can identify and communicate with extraterrestrial life forms.

Competences:
Being able to argue for and against whether similar processes can have taken place on other planets. Understand how we can search for traces of life elsewhere in the universe and what our limitations in searching for it are.
This course will provide the students with a competent background for further studies within this research field, e.g. an MSc project