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Earth - A (Unique?) Habitable Planet
Last Updated: 2026-02-05 16:30:26
Abstract
While thousands of extrasolar planets are known to orbit stars other than the Sun, Earth is - until now - the only planet known to be habitable. This lecture takes an interdisciplinary view on Earth as a habitable planet, how it formed, evolved, allowed life to flourish, and how its future might look like. Would we be able to identify another Earth-like planet amongst the population of exoplanets?
Objective
Attending students will • understand Earth place in the cosmos • learn tools to discern the history of Earth and other planets • explore the origin and co-evolution of Earth and life • put Earth in context with extrasolar planets
Content
This lecture focuses on our home planet - Earth - from an interdisciplinary perspective. As the search for habitable - and potentially even inhabited - extrasolar planets is one of the most dynamic research fields in modern astrophysics, understanding what makes a planet habitable is a topic of increasing importance; and a highly interdisciplinary topic. In broad brushes, this lecture will discuss the building blocks of planetary systems and their formation, how we can learn about the history of Earth and other planets, what major epochs we can identify over the course of Earth’s 4.5 billion year history, when life arose on Earth and what impact it had on Earth’s evolution, how the future Earth might look like, and - last but certainly not least - how we can search for an Earth-like planet in our cosmic neighbourhood and what our chances are to be successful.
Resources
Learning Materials (Links)
General Information
- Language
- English
- Levels
- MSC
Examination
- Type
- session examination
- Mode
- oral 30 minutes
Course Components
| Type | Title | Time & Place | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| lecture |
Earth - A (Unique?) Habitable Planet
Does not take place this semester.
|
No time listed | 2 h weekly |
| exercise |
Earth - A (Unique?) Habitable Planet
Does not take place this semester.
|
No time listed | 1 h weekly |
Offered In
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Deep Track Courses (At least 20 credits must be completed within the deep track courses. Surplus credit points can be counted towards the electives.)
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Deep Track Planetary Science (These courses can be credited either as a specialization subject or as an elective subject.)
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