Online Astronomy Course - Astrobiology & Life in the Universe (OAE5) - English Medium - June, 2026

Duration: 4 Saturdays - 4 Lectures - Total 8 hours

Dates : 06.06.2026, 13.06.2026, 20.06.2026, 27.06.2026

Time : 7.00 pm - 9.00 pm

Registration deadline - 4th June 2026

Content

· Day 1 - Introduction to Astrobiology& Life

      A basic introduction to astrobiology -definition, Fundamental questions in astrobiology, The history of Astrobiology,Early/pioneer Scientists, Definition of life, Characteristics of life andrequirements, Development of concepts about life, The building blocks of life,Amino acids, proteins, and chirality, Sugars, Lipids, Nucleic Acids,Alternative chemistries for life, Carbon as the core element, Alternatives for Carbon,Importance of Water, Solvents other than water, Cells: the basic unit of life,Types of Cells, Prokaryotic cell structure, Eukaryotic cell structure, Otherlife/life-like forms (virus, prions, etc.)

· Day 2 - The Origin of Elements to form Life, Early earth & Chemical evolution of life

          The origin of elements and formation of thesolar system, The formation of Early Earth, Early Oceans,Crust, Atmosphere and other conditions, Rock records (Geological records),Asteroid/comet impacts, A brief Geological history of Earth, Origin of life on earth: Concepts, ChemicalEvolution- Primordial soup concept, Urey-Miller experiment. Early Life on Earth, The protocells, Tree oflife and early evolution, Evidence of early life on Earth. Rise ofphotosynthesis and the Great Oxidation Event, Snowball Earth, The rise ofmulticellular life and Mass Extinctions, Geological time scales and life, Fivemajor Mass Extinctions.

· Day 3 - Other methods to describe life on Earth

     Spontaneous Generation, Panspermia, The role ofcomets, Meteorites with the source of material, Nucleotides, RNA/DNA, Membranelipids, RNA world. Extremophiles and Cave microbiology

· Day 4 - Habitability

    Conceptsof Habitability, Potential for life on Solar system, Mars. Venus?, Moon?,Titan, Europa, Enceladus, Triton, exoplanets, Meteorites, and other conditionsin the universe, stability of the star, and other factors.

•      E-book and E-certificate will be send to your email address. 
•      Lectures are conducted by experienced professionals of the Institute of Astronomy Sri Lanka, trained under Homi Bhabha centre for science education India
•      A valuable E-certificate will be issued at the completion of the short course and the certificate will be email after the program.
•      Suitable for anyone over 11 years old (Grade 6 and above), willing to learn Astronomy from beginning.