When the first exoplanet around the star 51Pegasi was discovered in 1995, no one had any idea what this would mean for the development of modern astrophysics. Planets around foreign stars were hardly imaginable for many astronomers and the sky was devoid of foreign planets. Since then the sky has not been left behind: With the help of sophisticated detection methods on large 10m telescopes and satellite missions like “Kepler” the sky suddenly became populated with thousands of planets around foreign suns. The search for planets in so-called life-friendly zones is increasingly taking center stage. These are those areas of planetary systems where water can exist in a liquid state. What could be more obvious here than the question: Is there life in space? The talk with Peter Habison will highlight the current state of exoplanetary research and the search for Earth-like planets around other stars.
