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What Is
Astrobiology? |
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"Astrobiology is the study of life in the Universe. It is also formerly called Exobiology and/or Bioastronomy." - David Darling |
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Our society is clearly enamored of the expectations not only that there is life on other planets, but that incidents of intelligent life, including other civilizations, occur in large numbers of the universe. |
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HOW IS ASTROBIOLOGY RELATED TO OUR TOPIC? Our topic, "Searching for intelligent life" is related to Astrobiology, because we study/research the probability of life, possibility of life, and possible contact on other planets and moons. There are two planets (Venus and Mars) and two moons (Titan and Europa) that could have possible life forms, but now evidence has been yet found. The reasons why life could possibly exist, is because it is formed in the right time, has required materials such as carbon, oxygen, iron, calcium, etc., and the planets and moons are formed close the Sun.
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In one sense, astrobiology is the field of biology ratcheted up to encompass not just life on Earth, but also life beyond Earth. Astrobiology requires us to break the shackles of conventional biology; it insists that we consider entire planets as ecological systems. Astrobiology requires an understanding of fossil history. It makes us think in terms of long sweeps of time rather than simply "here and now." Most fundamentally, it demands an expansion of our scientific vision - in time and space. (Brownlee and Ward, Introduction).
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