Survey on Astrobiology Research and Teaching Activities Within the United Kingdom

Abstract

While astrobiology is apparently growing steadily around the world, in terms of the number of researchers drawn into this interdisciplinary area and teaching courses provided for new students, there have been very few studies conducted to chart this expansion quantitatively. To address this deficiency, the Astrobiology Society of Britain (ASB) conducted a questionnaire survey of universities and research institutions nationwide to ascertain the current extent of astrobiology research and teaching in the UK. The aim was to provide compiled statistics and an information resource for those who seek research groups or courses of study, and to facilitate new interdisciplinary collaborations. The report here summarizes details gathered on 33 UK research groups, which involved 286 researchers (from undergraduate project students to faculty members). The survey indicates that around 880 students are taking university-level courses, with significant elements of astrobiology included, every year in the UK. Data are also presented on the composition of astrobiology students by their original academic field, which show a significant dominance of physics and astronomy students. This survey represents the first published systematic national assessment of astrobiological academic activity and indicates that this emerging field has already achieved a strong degree of penetration into the UK academic community.

Astrobiology in the UK

“…A recent paper (Dartnell and Burchell 2009) in the journal Astrobiology sets out to try to answer some of these questions. And how widespread is such work in this country?…”

“…The results of a recent survey of UK activities in astrobiology is about to be published in the journal Astrobiology (Dartnell and Burchell 2009) and reveals a wide ranging and deeply rooted UK community in the field. The focus of ESA's planetary missions on the Aurora theme leading to Mars (focusing on ExoMars in the near future and an eventual Mars sample return mission) has helped this, but in parallel a whole wide range of other activities in research and teaching are underway in the UK.…”

European landscape in astrobiology, results of the AstRoMap consultation

“…A survey on astrobiology research and teaching activities within the UK conducted in 2007/08 by use of a questionnaire distributed to members of British astrobiology groups (e.g., Astrobiology Society of Britain, UK Planetary Form and Astrosurf Network) showed that astrobiology had already achieved a strong degree of penetration into the UK academic community [17]. This is the first systematic national survey published on astrobiology activity.…”

How to Size an Exoplanet? A Model Approach for Visualization

“…Being an important and also popular subtopic of astrobiology, exoplanets often appear in the popularization related issues [9][10][11] and in the education. Although this hot topic is in the focus, only images were used to visualize the size of these bodies, and the methods often lacks the visualization of distances proportional to the real stellar and planet sizes.…”