Book Description

Habitability of the Universe before Earth: Astrobiology: Exploring Life on Earth and Beyond (series) examines the times and places—before life existed on Earth—that might have provided suitable environments for life to occur, addressing the question: Is life on Earth de novo, or derived from previous life? The universe changed considerably during the vast epoch between the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago and the first evidence of life on Earth 4.3 billion years ago, providing significant time and space to contemplate where, when and under what circumstances life might have arisen. No other book covers this cosmic time period from the point of view of its potential for life. The series covers a broad range of topics encompassing laboratory and field research into the origins and evolution of life on Earth, life in extreme environments and the search for habitable environments in our solar system and beyond, including exoplanets, exomoons and astronomical biosignatures. - Provides multiple hypotheses on the origin of life and distribution of living organisms in space - Explores the diversity of physical environments that may support the origin and evolution of life - Integrates contemporary views in biology and cosmology, and provides reasons that life is far more mobile in space than most people expect - Includes access to a companion web site featuring supplementary information such as animated computer simulations