Extrasolar Planets and the Search for Life
When I was back at University College London, I taught a diploma course to mature students exploring life on Earth and throughout the cosmos. The lecture notes for the course were made available on-line at the time. Even though the notes are now now a bit out of date (e.g., Huygens touched down on Titan a while back), there seems to be continued interest in them, which is why I'm making them available here.
- The Formation of the Solar System
- The Search for Extrasolar Planets
- The Conditions for Life
- The Development of Life on Earth
- Alternatives to Chemosynthesis
- Terrestrial Life in Extreme Environments
- Life in the Solar System: Mercury & Venus
- Life in the Solar System: Mars, Europa & Titan
- The Role of Atmospheric Compositions
- Future Planet Searches: Kepler & Darwin
- SETI: The Drake Equation
- SETI: Radio Searches and the Fermi Paradox
A note on copyright: many of the images on these pages were lifted from the web without proper attention to copyright. Unfortunately, I've long forgotten where the images came from, and to whom they belong. If you are an owner of an image, then please feel free to contact me to discuss proper attribution (or removal). If you want to use one of these images yourself, then I'm afraid I'm not the right person to ask.