By the end
What you'll build
- Explain the ingredients every known biosphere requires and why liquid water is the headline requirement
- Compute a star's habitable-zone inner and outer edges from its luminosity, in Python
- Read a transit light curve and derive a planet's size from the dip in starlight
- Compare the biosignature case for Mars, Europa and Enceladus and say what each mission is actually looking for
- Reason quantitatively about the Drake equation and understand what SETI can and cannot tell us
Curriculum
What's inside
4 modules · 21 lessons
- 01
What Life Needs
5 lessons- Start Here: The Map and the Honest Truth
- The Ingredients of Life
- Extremophiles: Life at the Edges
- Module 1 Check: What Life Needsquiz
- Flashcards: Foundations of Astrobiologyflashcard sr
- 02
Habitable Zones & Exoplanet Detection
6 lessons- The Habitable Zone: The Goldilocks Band
- Lab: Compute a Star's Habitable Zonepython lab
- How We Find Exoplanets
- Lab: Read a Transit Light Curvepython lab
- Numericals: Habitable Zones and Transitsfill blank
- + 1 more lesson
- 03
Biosignatures & Where to Look
5 lessons- What Counts as a Biosignature
- Mars: The Dry Riverbeds
- Ocean Worlds: Europa and Enceladus
- Module 3 Check: Biosignatures and Ocean Worldsquiz
- Flashcards: Biosignatures and Worldsflashcard sr
- 04
The Drake Equation & SETI
5 lessons- The Drake Equation
- Numericals: Estimating with the Drake Equationfill blank
- SETI: Listening to the Sky
- Module 4 Check: Drake Equation and SETIquiz
- Writing Lab: Make the Case for a Target Worldwriting lab
The shape of it
How this course works
Short lessons
21 lessons across 4 modules, each small enough to finish in one sitting.
Practice as you go
Every lesson ends with a small space for what you noticed — the doing is the learning.
A certificate at the end
Finish the course and earn a certificate anyone can verify with a link.
Ready when you are.
Make an account and this course opens up — your progress is saved from the very first lesson.