ICTS

I will begin by  defining  astrobiology  and  outlining its scope, followed by a brief history of this field. Recent advances in astrobiology will be briefly discussed, and future prospects and challenges for the field will also be outlined. I will choose a few topics/questions of current interest and describe ongoing research (by myself and others) in these areas. Examples include: are planets orbiting M-dwarfs (the most common and long-lived stars) habitable? Is it possible for life to thrive in the subsurface oceans of Europa and Enceladus? Did the presence of Earth's large Moon play a major role in the evolutionary history of life on Earth? Is it possible for superflares (gigantic flares) to occur on the Sun, and, if so, could they cause mass extinctions?