This event took place on 22nd June 2005
Berrill Lecture Theatre, The Open University, Walton Hall Campus, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom
Within the Solar System there are exciting prospects for finding fossils on Mars, even life itself. On Jupiter's satellite Europa there are perhaps even better prospects for finding extant life. But this lecture will only briefly mention these possibilities before we launch out into the immensity of our Galaxy. To find life beyond the Solar System we must first find potential habitats, and that means planets, and not just any planets, but planets of roughly the same mass, size and composition as the Earth. Moreover, any such planets must be located in the habitable zone - the Goldilocks range of distances from the star where an Earth-like planet could bear surface life that requires liquid water, like all life on Earth. This might seem parochial, but chemistry and biology indicate that life based on liquid water on a rocky planet is the most likely. So, have we found any Earth-like planets in the habitable zones of other stars? If not, what are the prospects? How could we establish whether any such distant planets are not only potential habitats but actual habitats? What are the prospects for finding extraterrestrial intelligence, the outcome of a search for function rather than form? I will give my best answers to these questions.
Within the Solar System there are exciting prospects for finding fossils on Mars, even life itself. On Jupiter's satellite Europa there are perhaps even better prospects for finding extant life. But this lecture will only briefly mention these possibilities before we launch out into the immensity of our Galaxy. To find life beyond the Solar System we must first find potential habitats, and that means planets, and not just any planets, but planets of roughly the same mass, size and composition as the Earth. Moreover, any such planets must be located in the habitable zone - the Goldilocks range of distances from the star where an Earth-like planet could bear surface life that requires liquid water, like all life on Earth. This might seem parochial, but chemistry and biology indicate that life based on liquid water on a rocky planet is the most likely. So, have we found any Earth-like planets in the habitable zones of other stars? If not, what are the prospects? How could we establish whether any such distant planets are not only potential habitats but actual habitats? What are the prospects for finding extraterrestrial intelligence, the outcome of a search for function rather than form? I will give my best answers to these questions.
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