Astrobiology: Emergence, Search and Detection of Life

According to a brief definition, astrobiology is an area of modern knowledge which studies the origin, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the Universe. The main aspects of astrobiology include experimental and theoretical modeling of the prebiotic and early biological evolution of Life on Earth or elsewhere; the search for present or past Life, biological or prebiotic molecules on other space bodies in our Solar System (for example Titan, Europa, Mars); the search for habitable environments in our Solar system as well as habitable planets outside it; studies of the ability of different Life forms to adapt to new environmental factors on Earth and in space. This explains why it is hard to find another example of a multidisciplinary field, which brings together collective efforts of experts in biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, spectroscopy, geology, volcanology, analytical and space instrumentation, among others. The present edition would be impossible without involving a similar list of scientists as contributors. The book is organized into three general sections and contains 19 chapters written by international experts in the field.