The exoplanet revolution and life in the Universe – Public Lecture & Panel Discussion
Public Lecture
"The exoplanet revolution and life in the Universe"
18h30 - 19h15
The diversity and prolific number of planets discovered have revolutionised our conception of the nature and history of planet formation. They have opened up the idea of the possible rarity of planetary systems similar to our own, but also exciting prospects for the potential to probe the atmospheres of planets in search of traces of life. We are living in a historic moment that brings us closer to exploring life in the universe and understanding the origins of life on Earth.
The talk will present an outlook of this landscape and will discuss the implications of these recent findings. New insights about the origins of life will be presented in the light of recent experiments about a possible origin of pre-biotic chemical building blocks as well as a possible long-range pathway for detecting Earth-like systems amenable for remote study of life.
Panel Discussion
19h15 - 20h15
Prof. Didier Queloz, Nobel Laureate 2019, is director of the newly founded NCCR Genesis. Its purpose is to establish an ambitious and innovative collaboration across different
fields of science in Switzerland, with the common goal of answering some of humanity’s most profound scientific questions: How did life emerge on Earth? Is the universe
full of life? In the last decade these profound questions have evolved from a vague, often speculative, debate into a practical research agenda that has galvanised researchers from
different disciplines and research agencies.
Panelists:
- Prof. Didier Queloz - ETH Zurich
- Prof. Johanna Marin-Carbonne - University of Lausanne (UNIL)
- Prof. Nicolas Winssinger - University of Geneva (UNIGE)
Moderated by Olivier Dessibourg.