Life on Earth and other Planetary Bodies

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

   PDF

2. Pathways to Life on Earth and Other Planetary Bodies

   • Joseph Seckbach

   Pages 1-8

3. Introduction

   • Giora Shaviv

   Pages 9-12

4. Halophiles, Continental Evaporites and the Search for Biosignatures in Environmental Analogues for Mars

   • Roberto Barbieri, Nunzia Stivaletta

   Pages 13-26

5. Vesicular Basalts as a Niche for Microbial Life

   • Barbara Cavalazzi, Frances Westall, Sherry L. Cady

   Pages 27-43

6. SETI: Assessing Imaginative Proposals

   • Stephen P. Cook

   Pages 45-62

7. Molecules Between the Stars

   • Nick Cox

   Pages 63-79

8. Prokaryotic Communities Below Planetary Surfaces and Their Involvement in the Nitrogen Cycle

   • Friedrich W. Gerbl, Gerhard W. Weidler, Angelika Breitfuss, Marion Dornmayr-Pfaffenhuemer, Helga Stan-Lotter

   Pages 81-99

9. Extrasolar Planets

   • Eike W. Guenther

   Pages 101-120

10. “Life Without Water”: The Sleeping Chironomid and Other Anhydrobiotic Invertebrates and Their Utilization in Astrobiology

    • Oleg Gusev, Takashi Okuda

    Pages 121-138

11. Habitability and Cosmic Catastrophes

    • Arnold Hanslmeier

    Pages 139-157

12. Glaciopanspermia: Seeding the Terrestrial Planets with Life?

    • Joop M. Houtkooper

    Pages 159-170

13. Chemical Evolution in Primeval Seas

    • Kamaluddin

    Pages 171-193

14. Terrestrial Analogues for Early Planetary Oceans: NIUAFO‘OU CALDERA LAKES (Tonga) and Their Geology, Water Chemistry, and Stromatolites

    • Stephan Kempe, Józef Kazmierczak

    Pages 195-234

15. Comparison of Environment Types with Liquid Water on Mars

    • Ákos Kereszturi

    Pages 235-250

16. Criteria of Possible Habitability of Earthlike Exoplanets

    • Leonid V. Ksanfomality

    Pages 251-270

17. Origin of the Genetic Code and Abiotic Synthesis of Organic Compounds

    • Zita Martins

    Pages 271-289

18. Dynamical Aspects for the Earth’s Habitability

    • Elke Pilat-Lohinger

    Pages 291-306

19. A Dynamic Scheme to Assess Habitability of Exoplanets

    • Dirk Schulze-Makuch, Abel Méndez, Alberto G. Fairén, Philip von Paris, Carol Turse, Grayson Boyer et al.

    Pages 307-321

20. Astrobiology of Titan

    • Michae Simakov

    Pages 323-344

A trio of editors [Professors from Austria, Germany and Israel] present Life on Earth and other Planetary Bodies. The contributors are from twenty various countries and present their research on life here as well as the possibility for extraterrestrial life. This volume covers concepts such as life’s origin, hypothesis of Panspermia and of life possibility in the Cosmos. The topic of extraterrestrial life is currently ‘hot’ and the object of several congresses and conferences. While the diversity of “normal” biota is well known, life on the edge of the extremophiles is more limited and less distributed. Other subjects discussed are Astrobiology with the frozen worlds of Mars, Europa and Titan where extant or extinct microbial life may exist in subsurface oceans; conditions on icy Mars with its saline, alkaline, and liquid water which has been recently discovered; chances of habitable Earth-like [or the terrestrial analogues] exoplanets; and SETI’s search for extraterrestrial Intelligence.

• Astrobiology
• Exoplanets
• Life in the University

From the reviews:

“A collection of articles about life, habitability and astrobiology, that should find a place on everyone’s reading-list who’s interested in the possibility of extraterrestrial life and the quickly evolving field of astrobiology and search for exoplanets and naturally also SETI. … it’s definitely a fascinating book. The best part about the book might be that you get to know some of the objects of the Solar system a lot more from the habitability aspect.” (Kadri Tinn, AstroMadness.com, March, 2014)

“Rich in subject matter, this book is exceptionally broad in its coverage of the evolutionary boundary between inorganic and organic matter. … Figures, diagrams, and color photos are well chosen. … Extensive references follow each chapter. This book will appeal to astronomers, chemists, and biologists as well as practicing astrobiologists who wish to explore the current extent of research and thinking in this new field. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.” (W. E. Howard III, Choice, Vol. 50 (9), May, 2013)

• Institut für Geophysik, Astrophysik und Meteorologie, Universität Graz, Graz, Austria

  Arnold Hanslmeier

• , Physical Geology and Global Cycles, Institute of Applied Geosciences (IAG), Darmstadt, Germany

  Stephan Kempe

• University of Jerusalem, Efrat, Israel

  Joseph Seckbach

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