News

With a £10 million grant awarded by the Leverhulme Trust, the University of Cambridge is to establish a new research centre dedicated to exploring the nature and extent of life in the Universe.The Leverhulme Centre for Life in the Universe will bring together an international team of scientists and philosophers, led by 2019 Nobel Laureate Professor…

A new study shows it’s theoretically possible. The hypothesis could be tested soon with proposed Venus-bound missions.It’s hard to imagine a more inhospitable world than our closest planetary neighbour. With an atmosphere thick with carbon dioxide, and a surface hot enough to melt lead, Venus is a scorched and suffocating wasteland where life as we…

Cambridge University astrochemist and experimental physicist Dr Paul Rimmer of the Department of Earth Sciences has been selected to receive the Stanley L. Miller Early Career Award from the International Society of the Study of the Origin of Life. The award is provided in recognition of his outstanding contributions to origins of life research.“Th…

On 11 November 2021 we launched the Cambridge Initiative for Planetary Science and Life in the Universe (IPLU) at the Wolfson Hall, Churchill College, where we brought together researchers from different disciplines to discuss practical ways to investigate fundamental questions on the origin and nature of life in the Universe.Led by 2019 Physics No…

How can thinking and expertise from a discipline forged in Earth’s 4.6 billion-year-old history inform the search for life beyond our solar system? This month’s edition of Elements Magazine International, titled ‘Geoscience Beyond the Solar System', and co-edited by Cambridge University’s Dr Oliver Shorttle, explores what the field of Exoplanetary …

Prebiotic chemistry deals with the synthesis and interaction of those organic compounds which might have been present before life began. So, what are sufficient conditions for the synthesis of the organic molecules constituting the building blocks of life as we know it?Dr Paul Rimmer of Cambridge’s Department of Earth Sciences who is also affiliate…

A new class of exoplanet very different to our own, but which could support life, has been identified by astronomers, which could greatly accelerate the search for life outside our Solar System.In the search for life elsewhere, astronomers have mostly looked for planets of a similar size, mass, temperature and atmospheric composition to Earth. Howe…

Astronomers have developed the most realistic model to date of planet formation in binary star systems.The researchers, from the University of Cambridge and the Max Planck Institute for Extra-terrestrial Physics, have shown how exoplanets in binary star systems – such as the ‘Tatooine’ planets spotted by NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope – came into be…

Research led by the University of Cambridge found rare evidence – preserved in the chemistry of ancient rocks from Greenland - which tells of a time when Earth was almost entirely molten.The study, published in Science Advancesback in March, yields information on an important period in our planet’s formation, when a deep sea of incandescent magma s…

While exploring two exoplanets in a bright nearby star system, ESA’s exoplanet-hunting Cheops satellite has unexpectedly spotted the system’s third known planet crossing the face of the star. This transit reveals exciting details about a rare planet “with no known equivalent”, say the researchers.The discovery is one of the first results from ESA’s…

Join us for our upcoming Exoplanet and Life Day on Tuesday 8 June 2021. This day will bring together scientists across Cambridge with a scientific interest in (exo)planets and life. It will highlight the variety of excellent research undertaken by students and early postdocs.This event is open to Cambridge students and researchers. Find out more he…

Cambridge IPLU member Professor Nicholas Tosca is the only UK scientist selected by NASA to be part of the core science team for the Mars Perseverance 2020 mission, which is searching for signs of past life on the red planet.The Mars 2020 Participating Scientist Program brings together scientists from different research fields to determine the habi…

For the first time, scientists using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have found evidence of volcanic activity reforming the atmosphere on a rocky planet around a distant star. The planet, GJ 1132 b, has a similar density, size, and age to Earth.The planet GJ 1132 b appears to have begun life as a gaseous world with a thick blanket of atmosphere…

The University of Cambridge is creating a new research initiative, bringing together physicists, chemists, biologists, earth scientists and mathematicians to answer fundamental questions on the origin and nature of life in the Universe.Led by 2019 Physics Nobel Laureate Professor Didier Queloz, the Cambridge Initiative for Planetary Science and Lif…