What a great course! The lecture style was really effective, the assignments were challenging but fun, and I learned so much about planets and life in the universe. Can we get a second course??
This Astrobiology course is not the first course I have taken about Astronomy. I took "Astronomy - Exploring Time and Space" some years ago, and found it fascinating, very well structured and interactive. Since then, I have been following, as often as I can, Professor Impey's Q&A sessions LIVE or else on YouTube replay. So when I learned there was to be this course on Astrobiology also by him and the University of Arizona, I immediately signed on as soon as it became available.
I had taken a previous course on Astrobiology, an Introduction to the theme, by the University of Edinburgh. That was several years ago. Astronomy has always been my hobby, ever since I was taught by an old ship's doctor, on a trip across the Atlantic, how to identify Orion in the sky. He had the adorable German way of pronouncing Betelgeuse (he had been a ship's doctor in the Kriegsmarine in the war). He said it as "Bay-tell-goyze". (Well, that's certainly better than those who say it "beetleJuice!)
I have been keeping up with the so many new developments there have been in the past forty years or so, and the discoveries on Europa, Enceladus and Titan have absolutely blown me over. This Astrobiology course was perfect to learn all the methodology for searching for life elsewhere than on earth, and beyond the old "Goldilocks Zone". The lectures were all excellent, and the two assignments towards the end of the course were challenging and really cemented the knowledge learned.
I certainly recommend this course to all and any who are interested in Astronomy. It is a course for beginners but also very much for those who already have some knowledge about the issues, but who want to have them restructured with the latest developments, and in a professional way, as Professor Impey does so well!
Thank you to all who put this course together, and thank you to the mentors who sent me interesting comments and feedback on my responses.
