Tilman Spohn

Muriel Gargaud

Ricardo Amils

Henderson James Cleaves

William M. Irvine

Michel Viso

Philippe Claeys

Maryvonne Gerin

Daniel Rouan

Stéphane Tirard

Now in its third edition the Encyclopedia of Astrobiology serves as the key to a common understanding in the extremely interdisciplinary community of astrobiologists. Each new or experienced researcher and graduate student in adjacent fields of astrobiology will appreciate this reference work in the quest to understand the big picture. The carefully selected group of active researchers contributing to this work are aiming to give a comprehensive international perspective on and to accelerate the interdisciplinary advance of astrobiology. The interdisciplinary field of astrobiology constitutes a joint arena where provocative discoveries are coalescing concerning, e.g. the prevalence of exoplanets, the diversity and hardiness of life, and its chances for emergence. Biologists, astrophysicists, (bio)-chemists, geoscientists and space scientists share this exciting mission of revealing the origin and commonality of life in the Universe. With its overview articles and its definitions the Encyclopedia of Astrobiology not only provides a common language and understanding for the members of the different disciplines but also serves for educating a new generation of young astrobiologists who are no longer separated by the jargon of individual scientific disciplines. This new edition offers ~170 new entries. More than half of the existing entries were updated, expanded or supplemented with figures supporting the understanding of the text. Especially in the fields of astrochemistry and terrestrial extremophiles but also in exoplanets and space sciences in general there is a huge body of new results that have been taken into account in this new edition. Because the entries in the Encyclopedia are in alphabetical order without regard for scientific field, this edition includes a section “Astrobiology by Discipline” which lists the entries by scientific field and subfield. This should be particularly helpful to those enquiring about astrobiology, as it illustrates the broad and detailed nature of the field.

Encyclopedia of Astrobiology

Hervé Martin

Purificación López-García

Thierry Montmerle

Robert Pascal

Jacques Reisse

This review gathers astronomers, geologists, biologists, and chemists around a common question: how did life emerge on Earth? The ultimate goal is to probe an even more demanding question: is life universal? This not-so linear account highlights problems, gaps, and controversies. Discussion covers the formation of the solar system; the building of a habitable planet; prebiotic chemistry, biochemistry, and the emergence of life; the early Earth environment, and much more.

From Suns to Life: A Chronological Approach to the History of Life on Earth

Henning Dypvik

Mark J. Burchell

Despite their global importance, little is known about the few existing examples of impacts into marine environments and icy targets. They are among the least understood and studied parts of impact crater geology. The icy impacts are also of great importance in understanding the developments of the outer planets and their satellites such as Mars or Europa. Furthermore, the impact mechanisms, crater formation and collapse, melt production and the ejecta distribution are scarcely known for impact on targets other than the "classical" solid silicates of the continental crust. The reaction of water and ice to impacts clearly deserves a more thorough study. The understanding of impact effects and consequences in the case of aqueous hits, soft sediments and icy targets has not been thoroughly explored and comprises the main focus of this book. A number of papers in the field of hypervelocity impacts on ice are included. These cover a review of available literature in the field of laboratory studies of such impacts, large impact structures on Titan, predicting impact cratering on a comet nucleus, and a novel report on the survival of bacteria fired at hypervelocity into icy surfaces. This latter paper is concerned with astrobiology and in particular Panspermia (natural migration of life through space).

Cratering in Marine Environments and on Ice

First comprehensive, beginning graduate level book on the emergent science of astrobiology.

Volume II

Lectures in Astrobiology

Troisième volume d'une série réalisée dans le cadre des écoles thématiques d'exobiologie du CNRS, ce livre s'intéresse aux divers environnements susceptibles d'être ou d'avoir été favorables à l'apparition de la vie. Les auteurs, issus d'une large communauté pluridisciplinaire, analysent les stratégies et les moyens à mettre en œuvre afin de déceler les traces de la présence de la vie. La question des tout premiers instants de notre planète est abordée à partir de la disponibilité des éléments biogènes et de la chronologie précise des événements astronomiques majeurs ayant conduit à la mise en place de l'environnement terrestre primitif et de la vie. La présence d'eau liquide apparaît dans l'état actuel des connaissances, indissociable de la vie. Mars où l'eau liquide a existé au début de l'histoire de la planète et Titan, dont l'atmosphère et/ou la surface pourraient représenter un " laboratoire de chimie prébiotique ", constituent des cibles potentielles pour la recherche des traces d'activité biologiques. L'existence des briques élémentaires nécessaires à l'émergence de la vie est abordée successivement du point de vue de la modélisation théorique des molécules astrophysiques présentes dans les nuages interstellaires, du point de vue de la régulation de la vie par l'environnement planétaire, et de façon plus abstraite, mais ô combien révélatrice de la complexité de l'essence même de la vie, du point de vue virtuel. Enrichi d'un glossaire de 910 mots, Des atomes aux planètes habitables est un ouvrage qui s'adresse aussi bien à un public averti que curieux des questions soulevées par l'origine de la vie et par la possibilité de vie " ailleurs ".

Des atomes aux planètes habitables

Philippe Claeys

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