Seminar title: Inhabiting the universe: what are the limits for habitats across the future of the universe?

It was our pleasure to welcome Anders Sandberg from the Future of Humanity Institute, University of Oxford. Anders gave an exhilarating overview of a number of potential futures for life, both as we know it and otherwise. After considering the likeliness of finding alien life given our current observational and theoretical understanding, Anders moved on to consider a variety of avenues for life to flourish in the upcoming eras of the universe.

As of the 28th of June 2017, the Centre for Exoplanets and Habitability has been established as a University of Warwick Research Centre. Thank you to all members of the CEH who have contributed to our work so far, and who helped to make this a reality.

Owing to a low number of sign-ups, the Forbidden Planets roundtable discussion with author Alastair Reynolds has unfortunately had to be CANCELLED.

The CEH will instead be recording an interview with Alastair, discussing his work in the context of habitability. This interview will be posted on the website in the near future.

We apologise to all who were looking forward to the event.

The CEH is pleased to announce the launch of its "Concepts of Habitability" competition, exploring concepts of habitability both on Earth and other worlds.

We invite submissions from all students, both postgraduate and undergraduate, in any medium. Entries must fit within an A1 display area, and judging will take place in the Teaching Grid on Thursday 23rd June, 5pm to 6pm. The winning entry will be awarded prize money (in Amazon vouchers) of £100, with extra prizes in additional subcategories.

More information is available at the competition webpage.

A new paper published today provides a new viewpoint on the habitability of planets, and its codependence on inhabitance of those same planets. The presence of life influences the habitability of a planet, through its effect on the composition of the planet's atmosphere.