Exobiology

The definitions of life which have been formulated in the NASA Exobiology Program as general working definitions are as follows ... 

Oro J, Squyres SW, Reynolds RT, Mills TM (1992) Europa Prospects for an Ocean and Exobi-ological Implications. In Carle GC, Schwartz DE, Huntington JL (Eds.) Exobiology in Solar System Exploration. NASA SP 12, p 103... 

Plankensteiner K, Reiner H, Schranz B, Rode MB (2004) Angew Chem 116 1922, Int Ed 42 1886 Ponamperuma C, Sagan C, Mariner R (1963) Nature 199 222 Press F, Siver R (1994) Understanding Earth, Freeman and Company, NewYork Pullman B (1972) Electronic Factors in biochemical evolution. In Ponnamperuna C (Ed.) Exobiology. North Holland Publishing Company, Amsterdam London, p 140 Raulin F (2000) Orig Life Evol Biosphere 30 116 Reid C, Orgel (1967) Nature 216 216... 

Although the terms exobiology and astrobiology really mean the same thing, astro-biology , introduced by NASA in 1995, has become the one of choice. This branch of science reaches from cosmochemistry via biogenesis to all the other themes involving research on traces of life (of whatever sort) on planets and on moons, both within and outside our solar system. 

Marcanoa V. et al. (2002). Growth of a lower eukaryote in non-aromatic hydrocarbon media C12 and its exobiological significance. Planetary and Space Science 50(7-8) 693-709. 

Moll, D. M. and Vestal, J. R. (1992). Survival of microorganisms in smectite clays Implications for Martian exobiology. Icarus 98, 233-239. 

Exobiology Research Group, University of Calgary, Calgary 44, Canada... 

NASA. Exobiology Life Through Space and Time. NASA Web site. Available online. URL http //exobiology.nasa.gov/. 

Friedmann El, Ocampo-Friedmann R (1984) The Antarctic crytoendolithic ecosystem relevance to exobiology. Orig Life 14 771-776 Fritsen CH, Priscu JC (1998) Cyanobacterial assemblages in permanent ice covers on Antarctic lakes distribution, growth rate, and temperature response of photosynthesis. J Phytol 34 587-597 Furfaro R et al (12) (2007) The search for life beyond Earth through fuzzy expert systems. Planet Space Sci in press. 

Soina VS, Vorobiova EA, Zvyagintsev DG, Gilichinsky DA (1995) Preservation of cell structures in permafrost a model for exobiology. Adv Space Res 15 237-242... 

M. Anbar, Exobiology Division, Ames Research Center, NASA, Moffett Field, California 94035, U.S.A. 

Exobiology Division, Arms Research Center, NASA,... 

This work was supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration jointly through the Exobiology Program of the Life Sciences and the Planetary Geology Program of the Solar System Exploration Divisions. 

Exobiological research offers reasons to expect that amino acids might be universal. Amino acids appear to be products of prebiotic synthesis. They are famously the products of the Miller process by which methane, ammonia, and water were subjected to electrical discharge. And amino acids are found in carbonaceous meteorites both as alpha amino acids that are standard in terran life and as the nonstandard alpha-methylamino acids found by Cronin and Pizzarello.24... 

Colin, J., and Kasting, J.F. 1992. Venus. A search for clues to early biological possibilities. Pp. 45-65 in Exobiology in the Solar System. NASA-SP-512. NASA, Washington, D.C. 

N. W. Gabel and C. Ponnamperuma (1972). Primordial organic chemistry. In C. Ponnamperuma (Ed.), Exobiology, North-Holland, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, p. 95. 

Chang, S., Kvenvolden, K. A. Exobiology (ed. C. Ponnamperuma). North Holland Publishing Company, in press. 

Barghoorn E. S. and Tyler S. A. (1965) Microorganisms of middle Precambrian age from the Animikie series. Current aspects of exobiology, Ontario, Canada, chap. 3, pp. 93-118. 

Exobiology—The science of extraterrestrial life forms and environments that may support life. 

Any device sent into outer space must have certain characteristics. It must be able to withstand the stress of propulsion into space. It must also be able to use power efficiently. And it must be able to operate under thermal extremes. It is also very favorable for such devices to be as small and lightweight as possible. Several space microdevices have been created that meet these criteria. Miniature gas chromatographic ionization detectors, ion mobility spectrometers, x-ray diffraction devices, and fluorescence instruments are all in various stages of development. Each of these devices plays an important role in exobiology, the science of extraterrestrial environments that may support life. 

Duke University. Cruising Chemistry—The Miller-Urey Experiment [cited March 10, 2003]. . 

This work was supported by funding from NASA. J.R.L. also thanks the NASA Specialized Center for Research and Training in Exobiology al the University of California, San Diego for partial sujport. Contribution 6202 of tlie Division of Geological and Planetaiy Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125. 

Department of Exobiology, University of Nijmegen, Toernooiveld, Nijmegen (The Netherlands)... 

Moorbath, S. Kamber, B. S. 1998. Re-appraisal of the age of the oldest water-lain sediments. West Greenland. In Chela-Flores, J. Raulin, F. (eds) Exobiology Matter, Energy and Information in the Origin and Evolution of Life in the Universe. Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht, 81-86. 

Pullman B (1972) Electronic Factors in biochemical evolution. In Ponnamperuna C (Ed.) Exobiology. North Holland Publishing Company, Amsterdam London, p 140 Raulin F (2000) Orig Life Evol Biosphere 30 116 Reid C, Orgel (1967) Nature 216 216... 

The concerted effort that is going on at present in the new discipline of astrobiology, sometimes also called exobiology or bioastronomy - a discipline with three names but no known object - will perhaps lead to the discovery of extraterrestrial life some time in the future. If it does not, however, all one will be able to state is that life is not extremely frequent. Finding no sign of life in the minuscule part of the cosmos accessible to our explorations in no way can serve as proof of the rarity of life, let alone its uniqueness. 

---