Origin and Evolution of Life on Terrestrial Planets
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2010

The ultimate goal of terrestrial planet-finding missions is not only to discover terrestrial exoplanets inside the habitable zone (HZ) of their host stars but also to address the major question as to whether life may have evolved on a habitable Earth-like exoplanet outside our Solar System. We note that the chemical evolution that finally led to the origin of life on Earth must be studied if we hope to understand the principles of how life might evolve on other terrestrial planets in the Universe. This is not just an anthropocentric point of view: the basic ingredients of terrestrial life, that is, reduced carbon-based molecules and liquid H2O, have very specific properties. We discuss the origin of life from the chemical evolution of its precursors to the earliest life-forms and the biological implications of the stellar radiation and energetic particle environments. Likewise, the study of the biological evolution that has generated the various life-forms on Earth provides clues toward the understanding of the interconnectedness of life with its environment.

Organic molecules

Origin of life

sediments

stars

bacteria

Astrobiology

biosphere

hydrothermal vents

ultraviolet-radiation

earth-like planets

Radiation

galactic habitable zone

amino-acids

permafrost

Författare

A. Brack

CBM Centre de Biophysique Moleculaire

G. Horneck

Deutsches Zentrums für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR)

C. S. Cockell

Open University

A. Berces

Magyar Tudomanyos Akademia

N. K. Belisheva

Russian Academy of Sciences

C. Eiroa

Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (UAM)

T. Henning

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

T. Herbst

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

L. Kaltenegger

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

A. Leger

Université Paris-Sud

René Liseau

Chalmers, Institutionen för radio- och rymdvetenskap, Radioastronomi och astrofysik

H. Lammer

Institut fur Weltraumforschung

F. Selsis

Université de Bordeaux

C. Beichman

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

W. Danchi

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

M. Fridlund

European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESA ESTEC)

J. Lunine

University of Arizona

F. Paresce

Istituto nazionale di astrofisica (INAF)

A. Penny

STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory

A. Quirrenbach

Landessternwarte Heidelberg-Königstuhl

H. Rottgering

Universiteit Leiden

J. Schneider

Observatoire de Paris-Meudon

D. Stam

Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON)

G. Tinetti

University College London (UCL)

G. J. White

Open University

STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory

Astrobiology

1531-1074 (ISSN)

Vol. 10 1 69-76

Ämneskategorier

Astronomi, astrofysik och kosmologi

Fundament

Grundläggande vetenskaper

DOI

10.1089/ast.2009.0374

Mer information

Senast uppdaterat

2021-05-20