Har vi overset liv i rummet?

Programme: 19.15: Welcome 19.20: Har vi overset liv i rummet? – del 1 with Gunver Lystbæk Vestergård 20.00: Break 20.20: Har vi overset liv i rummet?

– del 2 with Morten Bo Madsen 21.00: Questions from the audience 21.30: Thank you and goodnight Have we already found life on Mars without knowing it? Join us in Planetariekuplen as we mark 50 years of the search for life on the Red Planet and explore the discoveries that still challenge our understanding.

In 1976, NASA’s two Viking missions landed on Mars with advanced laboratories designed to search for biological activity. The results caused a stir: the landers measured gas emissions from Martian soil that could have come from microorganisms. Had we found life?

50 years later, the answer is still being debated. How can we distinguish traces of life from chemistry that merely looks like it? Since Viking, new and mysterious discoveries have emerged. Among them are the so-called “leopard spots”, photographed by the Perseverance rover on a rock in 2024. They resemble structures that can be formed by microorganisms on Earth. But is the resemblance enough?

This evening, you’ll meet Mars researcher Morten Bo Madsen and science journalist Gunver Lystbæk Vestergård. They share a fascination with our search for life, but don’t entirely agree on whether we have already found it.

Gunver Lystbæk Vestergård holds a master’s degree in journalism and a PhD in science journalism, specialising in physics, astronomy and the history of science. In her latest book, Vores Levende Univers, she explores the science, history and people behind the search. She is convinced that the question is not IF we will find life in space, but WHEN.

Morten Bo Madsen is an associate professor and Mars researcher at the University of Copenhagen and has been involved in every one of NASA’s missions to the surface of Mars since 1997. He takes us behind the discoveries, the doubts and the challenges of searching for life on another planet, while the whole world watches.

Bring your friends and family along for an evening exploring the clues that inspire hope and the mysteries that continue to puzzle us. Beneath Planetariekuplen’s starry sky, we’ll ask one of humanity’s greatest questions: Are we alone in the universe?