News

Cambridge astronomer awarded ERC Consolidator Grant to investigate exoplanetary atmospheres in the sub-Neptune regime

24 March 2022

Nikku Madhusudhan , Professor of Astrophysics and Exoplanetary Science at the Institute of Astronomy, is one of five researchers at the University of Cambridge who have won consolidator grants this year from the European Research Council (ERC), Europe’s premiere funding organisation for frontier research. Prof. Madhusudhan...

New way of dating asteroid collisions advances our knowledge of early Solar System history

24 February 2022

Geologists have identified a new way of tracing collisions between asteroids, using microscopic mineral textures, which could greatly enhance our understanding of how planets and asteroids interacted across much of Solar System history. Planetary histories are shaped, and perhaps recorded, by collisions. For example, the...

IPLU Science Day Lent 2022

16 February 2022

The IPLU Science Day was held on 7 February 2022 to bring together researchers from across the University to discuss their work on planetary science and life in the Universe. We were also joined by our guest speaker, Matteo Brogi from the University of Warwick who spoke about his work on exoplanet atmospheres. Below is a...

Cambridge launches new Leverhulme Centre for Life in the Universe

10 January 2022

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...

Could acid-neutralising life-forms make habitable pockets in Venus’ clouds?

21 December 2021

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...

Cambridge astrochemist and physicist receives early career award from the International Society of the Study of the Origin of Life

20 December 2021

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...

Launch of the Cambridge Initiative for Planetary Science and Life in the Universe

13 December 2021

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...

Cambridge Earth Scientist highlights opportunity to take our discipline beyond the solar system

19 October 2021

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...

IPLU hosts panel discussion on hydrogen sources of potential significance to early life on rocky planets

15 September 2021

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...

New class of habitable exoplanets represent a big step forward in the search for life

26 August 2021

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...

Cambridge astronomer awarded ERC Consolidator Grant to investigate exoplanetary atmospheres in the sub-Neptune regime

New way of dating asteroid collisions advances our knowledge of early Solar System history

IPLU Science Day Lent 2022

Cambridge launches new Leverhulme Centre for Life in the Universe

Could acid-neutralising life-forms make habitable pockets in Venus’ clouds?

Cambridge astrochemist and physicist receives early career award from the International Society of the Study of the Origin of Life

Launch of the Cambridge Initiative for Planetary Science and Life in the Universe

Cambridge Earth Scientist highlights opportunity to take our discipline beyond the solar system

IPLU hosts panel discussion on hydrogen sources of potential significance to early life on rocky planets

New class of habitable exoplanets represent a big step forward in the search for life

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