CSES/ARU Christmas Lectures : The Great Alien Hunt

Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC, Stefan Payne-Wardenaar

Join astronomer and author Dr Matt Bothwell as we hunt for signs of life across the Galaxy. We’ll search for planets in other Solar Systems, and learn about all the weird and wonderful ways scientists think we (might) be able to travel around the Universe. We’ll take a trip across the frozen seas of Jupiter’s moons, to planets made of lava in the deepest depths of space. We might even try to answer the biggest question of all… are we alone in the Universe?

Matthew Bothwell is the public astronomer at the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge and an astrophysicist by training. He is in charge of public engagement activities at the IoA, which includes running their schools outreach programme, winter stargazing evenings, Cambridge Festival events, and more. He also supports IoA researchers who want to engage the public with their research.

Matthew is an experienced science communicator and science writer. He has published three popular astronomy books for both adults and children: The Great Alien Hunt (2025, DK), Astrophysics for Supervillains (2024, DK), and The Invisible Universe: Why There’s More to Reality than Meets the Eye (2021, Oneworld). He has lectured for the Royal Institution, New Scientist, the Royal Astronomical Society, and the British Astronomical Association, amongst many others, and his science writing has appeared in New Scientist, The Daily Beast, Aeon magazine, The Guardian, Writer's Digest, and more.

To reserve places for your students please send an email to contact@cses.org.uk stating which session(s) you prefer(AM, PM, EITHER OR BOTH), how many students you wish to bring, and their year groups.

We are also able to offer tours of the ARU facilities to a limited number of students with each session! This will mean that it becomes a full day event with the lecture in the morning and the tour in the afternoon, or vice-versa, with a lunch break between*. If you wish to take part in the tour please also indicate this on your email.

* Students will need to bring a packed lunch or purchase food from the ARU canteen.