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.
permafrost
Astrobiology
stars
galactic habitable zone
hydrothermal vents
amino-acids
Origin of life
sediments
Radiation
biosphere
Organic molecules
earth-like planets
ultraviolet-radiation
bacteria
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
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
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
Open University
Astrobiology
1531-1074 (ISSN)
Vol. 10 1 69-76Ämneskategorier
Astronomi, astrofysik och kosmologi
Fundament
Grundläggande vetenskaper
DOI
10.1089/ast.2009.0374