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Habitability Criteria

The habitability group is concerned with investigating the conditions on the surface of planetary bodies and the factors that determine whether a planetary body is habitable. The group is concerned with understanding whether observations of extrasolar planets match habitability criteria for life and what spectral observations of distant extrasolar planets imply about the conditions available for life. The group is also interested in the limits of life and its tolerance of extreme environments.

Members:
- Charles Cockell, Open University (c.s.cockell§open.ac.uk)
- Sergiu Fendrihan, University of Salzburg (ecologos23@yahoo.com)
- Lisa Kaltenegger, Harvard University (lkaltene§cfa.harvard.edu)
- Helmut Lammer, Austrian Academy of Sciences (helmut.lammer§oeaw.ac.at)
- John Raven, University of Dundee (j.a.raven§dundee.ac.uk)
- Franck Selsis (franck.selsis§ens-lyon.fr)

This section's articles


Key science questions (Habitability Criteria)

Saturday 5 September 2009 by Vincent Coudé du Foresto
Sagan et al. (1993) analyzed a spectrum of the Earth taken by the Galileo probe, searching for signatures of life and concluded that the large amount of O2 and the simultaneous presence of CH4 traces are strongly suggestive of biology. To characterize a planet’s atmosphere and its potential (...)
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Presentation (Habitability Criteria)

Tuesday 1 July 2008 by Vincent Coudé du Foresto
The habitability group is concerned with investigating the conditions on the surface of planetary bodies and the factors that determine whether a planetary body is habitable. The group is concerned with understanding whether observations of extrasolar planets match habitability criteria for (...)
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