Seminar title: Inhabiting the universe: what are the limits for habitats across the future of the universe?

It was our pleasure to welcome Anders Sandberg from the Future of Humanity Institute, University of Oxford. Anders gave an exhilarating overview of a number of potential futures for life, both as we know it and otherwise. After considering the likeliness of finding alien life given our current observational and theoretical understanding, Anders moved on to consider a variety of avenues for life to flourish in the upcoming eras of the universe.

James Blake, a postgraduate student in the Warwick Astronomy & Astrophysics Group, gives an overview of his summer project researching the topic of panspermia and applying the theory to the exciting TRAPPIST-1 planetary system.

Dimitri Veras leads an interdisciplinary team of astronomers and biologists in a study exploring the dynamical and biological constraints of interplanetary panspermia. This is the theory that life can hop from planet to planet via some mechanism, most likely aboard asteroids or comets.

This work was published in Astrobiology, Volume 18, Number 9

Open access link: arXiv

CEH members involved: Dimitri Veras (lead), David Armstrong, James Blake, Jose Gutiérrez-Marcos & Hendrik Schäefer

CEH member James Blake won the award for Best Poster at the 2018 Posters in Parliament competition, hosted by the University of Sheffield. Over 50 students were selected from institutions across the UK and tasked with presenting undergraduate research. James' research on lithopanspermia, the theory that life can hop from place to place throughout the Universe aboard asteroids and comets, managed to capture the judges' imagination.

Poster available here

As of the 28th of June 2017, the Centre for Exoplanets and Habitability has been established as a University of Warwick Research Centre. Thank you to all members of the CEH who have contributed to our work so far, and who helped to make this a reality.