The Leverhulme Centre for Life in the Universe hosts Dr Stephane Mazevet from the Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur.
Speaker: Dr Stephane Mazevet, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur
Abstract:
With thousands of exoplanets now identified, the characterization of habitable planets and the potential
identification of inhabited ones is a major challenge for the coming decades. To address this challenge, we
developed an innovative approach to assess habitability and inhabitation by coupling for the first time the
atmosphere and the interior modeling with the biological activity based on ecosystem modeling. We applied the
approach to various situations where habitability and inhabitation are in question: the possibility of
methanogenic activity at the Enceladus ocean floor, the impact of methanogenic activity on the composition of
the early Earth and early Mars atmospheres and its influence on the long-term climate. During this talk, we will
focus on the evolution of earth-like planets around G-type stars and strategies that can be elaborated to validate
the concept of habitable planets so as to inform the design of future space missions.