The course is given each fall term.

The course is given in English

• Introduction. Astrobiology as a current cross- and multidisciplinary subject.
• The evolution of the terrestrial surface and atmosphere; The Earth seen as a planet. The influence of life on atmospheric chemistry.
• The evolution of other planets and of their atmospheres. Atmospheres as a protection against solar ultraviolet and corpuscular radiation.
• Small bodies in the solar system. Impacts by meteorites and asteroids; biological effects, such as the extinction or modification of species.
• The planet Mars: Its past evolution and properties; climatic and seasonal changes, and their mechanisms; differences against the Earth.
• Terrestrial life under extreme conditions: deep underground; in radioactive environments; inside cold lakes, and in permafrost. Life at great ocean depths and next to volcanoes; geothermal mechanisms in maintaining conditions benign to life.
• Search for traces of extraterrestrial life in meteorites (e.g., from Mars) and in extraterrestrial soil samples.
• Transfer of microorganisms between planets in the solar system. Needs for quarantine on Earth in handling extraterrestrial samples. Protection of other celestial bodies against contamination from Earth.
• The Jupiter moons Europa and Io. Mechanisms of tidal forcing in maintaining possibly benign climates. Ice-covered oceans on Europa.
• The Saturn moon Titan. Chemical processes in cold atmospheres. Water geysers on the Saturn moon Enceladus.
• The dependence of organisms on gravity. Effects of weightlessness on plants, animals, and humans. Different gravity conditions in various locations.
• Planets around other stars: methods for finding and analyzing them. Statistical and individual properties of exoplanets. Physical conditions and zones of habitability around different stars. Stability of planetary orbits and of planetary systems.
• Future ground- and space-based experiments to analyze exoplanets and their atmospheres. Searches for biomarkers; direct imaging with large telescopes; interferometers in space; spectroscopy of exoplanet atmospheres.
• Mechanisms for global climate change. The Earth some billion years in the past, and in the future. Hypothetical artificial climate changes on Mars and other planets.
• The concept of "life" and its utmost limits. Possible and impossible creatures in space. Can life be based also on other principles than those on Earth?
• SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Interstellar communication; possibilities for interstellar spaceflight. * Conceivable sociological, legal, philosophical and other consequences from the discovery of extraterrestrial life and/or extraterrestrial intelligence.