Searching for life in the universe: how, where and why?
The age-old question "Are we alone in the universe?" has attracted renewed interest in recent years. The discovery of the first extrasolar planet around a sun-like star, two decades ago, ushered in an era of unprecedented activity in astrobiology, the interdisciplinary science that seeks to characterize the limits and frequency of life in the cosmic context. Much work has been done - and much still needs to be done - to assess the factors that make a world habitable and to devise techniques that, in the not too distant future, might be used to remotely characterize exoplanets and their atmospheres, looking for the tell-tale signatures of biological activity. The long-sought goal of empirically evaluating the distribution of life in the universe might have a profound impact also on our understanding of the fundamental structure of our universe.
Friday, 1 April 2016, ore 14:30 — Aula Magna