Astrobiology. From the Greek: Astron (star), Bios (life) and Logos (word/science). The literal meaning of astrobiology is the science of life in the cosmos, the science of life outside, whether it be past, present, or future life. It is a branch of astronomy that investigates life in the Universe , in the broadest meaning of the term. Synonymous with astrobiology is “exobiology”, that is, the biology of outer space.
Summary
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- 1 Etymology
- 2Origen
- 3 Features
- 4 Related Sciences
- 5 studies
- 6 Fountains
Etymology
The word astrobiology comes from the Greek astron = star, bios = life and logos = word/science; occasionally it is also called xenobiology (from the Greek: xenos = foreign) or exobiology (from the Greek: exo = external), that is, the literal meaning of astrobiology is the science of life in the cosmos , the science of external or foreign life (extraterrestrial), whether past, present or future life.
Origen
Astrobiology is a new science that arises from the need to investigate the origin, presence and influence of life in the Universe . It is a relatively recent branch of knowledge, since its starting point can be placed in 1998, when NASA created the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) .
Exobiology or astrobiology is the study of the possible presence of life on other planets. Scientists from various disciplines participate in it: geologists, chemists, oceanographers, astrophysicists, molecular biologists, zoologists and paleontologists, among others. How life appeared and survived on Earth, whether there is a possibility of life elsewhere, and how life could be found and recognized are the three key questions in astrobiology. In 1998 , NASA created the Astrobiology Institute, which has been decisive in the consolidation of this new science.
But unfortunately, the search for extraterrestrial life has been trivialized so often that people tend to oscillate between complete skepticism and outright credulity. Probably, knowing that the conditions required by life are not at all frequent in space and that the life that can best adapt to an inhospitable environment is not, precisely, the human being or other beings similar to him, but the simpler organisms, the vision that would be had of the possible extraterrestrial beings would diverge, and much, from the current one.
Features
Astrobiology is, from its very origin, transdisciplinary. It relates sciences such as Astronomy , Astrophysics , Biology , Chemistry , Geology , Computer Science , Anthropology and Philosophy , among others. The essence of astrobiological study is the analysis of scientific problems from the point of view of various independent disciplines with their own methods and approaches. This is especially useful in the case of historical phenomena such as life, in which there are simple bases such as physics and chemistry that manifest themselves in a complex way such as biology.
There is no agreed definition of astrobiology, although its field of interest is perfectly recognizable: in addition to everything that has to do with understanding the phenomenon of life as we know it (its emergence, development conditions, adaptability -extremophilia- , etc.), also involves the search for life outside the Earth (exobiology) and its derivations, such as space exploration or planetology.
Related Sciences
Astrobiology is a multidisciplinary science that is formed from the specialization and union of various scientific disciplines such as astronomy, astrophysics, biology, chemistry and geology. Additionally, the main auxiliary sciences of astrobiology are mathematics, computer science and statistics.
Studies
It studies the origin, evolution, distribution and destiny of life in the Universe. It constitutes a multidisciplinary research area promoted by NASA.
Astrobiology begins with the study of the appearance of life on our planet. Starting from here, it is possible to determine the chemical and biochemical processes that constitute a fundamental episode of the cycle of cosmic evolution.
According to the most solid hypotheses, the process that led to the presence of life on Earth began early after the formation of our planet, as soon as environmental conditions allowed it, about 4.5 billion years ago. Paleontology studies have revealed the remains of primordial organisms in a fossil state, in rocks dating back some 3,500 million years. Therefore, we can assume that the period of time in which the first living cells were organized from inanimate matter, was indeed quite short with respect to the age of our planet.
The most consistent opinion offers the following panorama of the appearance of life on Earth. A primordial atmosphere based on hydrogen, ammonia, methane and water vapor provided, through the rains, the main elements for the formation of puddles in which the first organic syntheses were carried out. In a second moment, fertilized by ultraviolet solar radiation and electrical discharges, this “primordial broth”, as it has been defined by some scientists, gave rise to chains of amino acids and proto-proteins that represent the fundamental pieces of the living cell. . Finally, the spontaneous organization of the first cell endowed with self-productive capacity was reached.
Starting from the principle that life can be born, affirm and evolve, by Darwinian selection, in a multiplicity of different species, many scholars are also convinced that there are no plausible reasons why this fact is limited only to our planet. The most recent studies in astrophysics have shown an amazing genetic and structural unity of the entire visible Universe: stars , galaxies and cosmic matter are formed everywhere obeying the same principles.