Astrobiology, formerly known as exobiology, is an interdisciplinary scientific field concerned with the origins, early evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe. Astrobiology considers the question of whether extraterrestrial life exists, and if it does, how humans can detect it.
Panspermia is the hypothesis that life exists throughout the Universe, distributed by space dust, meteoroids, asteroids, comets, planetoids, and also by spacecraft carrying unintended contamination by microorganisms. Distribution may have occurred spanning galaxies, and so may not be restricted to the limited scale of solar systems.
The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) is a learned society and charity that encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. Its headquarters are in Burlington House, on Piccadilly in London. The society has over 4,000 members ("Fellows"), most of them professional researchers or postgraduate students. Around a quarter of Fellows live outside the UK.
The NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) was established in 1998 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) "to develop the field of astrobiology and provide a scientific framework for flight missions." In December 2019 the Institute activities has been suspended.
Nalin Chandra Wickramasinghe is a Sri Lankan-born British mathematician, astronomer and astrobiologist of Sinhalese ethnicity. His research interests include the interstellar medium, infrared astronomy, light scattering theory, applications of solid-state physics to astronomy, the early Solar System, comets, astrochemistry, the origin of life and astrobiology. A student and collaborator of Fred Hoyle, the pair worked jointly for over 40 years as influential proponents of panspermia. In 1974 they proposed the hypothesis that some dust in interstellar space was largely organic, later proven to be correct.
Eric J. Chaisson is an American astrophysicist best known for his research, teaching, and writing on the interdisciplinary science of cosmic evolution. He is also noted for his telescopic observations of interstellar clouds and emission nebulae of the Milky Way Galaxy, his empirical attempt to unify complexity science utilizing the technical concept of energy rate density, and his global leadership in improving science education nationally and internationally. He conducts research at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and teaches natural science at Harvard University.
Astrobiology is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering research on the origin, evolution, distribution and future of life across the universe. The journal's scope includes astrophysics, astropaleontology, bioastronomy, cosmochemistry, ecogenomics, exobiology, extremophiles, geomicrobiology, gravitational biology, life detection technology, meteoritics, origins of life, planetary geoscience, planetary protection, prebiotic chemistry, space exploration technology and terraforming.
Extraterrestrial material refers to natural objects now on Earth that originated in outer space. Such materials include cosmic dust and meteorites, as well as samples brought to Earth by sample return missions from the Moon, asteroids and comets, as well as solar wind particles.
David H. Grinspoon is an American astrobiologist. He is Senior Scientist at the Planetary Science Institute and was the former inaugural Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology for 2012-2013.
Caleb A. Scharf is a British-born astronomer and the director of the multidisciplinary Columbia Astrobiology Center at Columbia University, New York. He received a B.Sc. in Physics from Durham University and a PhD in Astronomy from the University of Cambridge; he did postdoctoral work in X-ray astronomy and observational cosmology at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and the Space Telescope Science Institute in Maryland.
Richard Brice Hoover is a scientist who has authored 33 volumes and 250 papers on astrobiology, extremophiles, diatoms, solar physics, X-ray/EUV optics and meteorites. He holds 11 U.S. patents and was 1992 NASA Inventor of the Year. He was employed at the United States' NASA Marshall Space Flight Center from 1966 to 2012, where he worked on astrophysics and astrobiology. He established the Astrobiology Group there in 1997 and until his retirement in late 2011 he headed their astrobiology research. He conducted research on microbial extremophiles in the Antarctic, microfossils, and chemical biomarkers in precambrian rocks and in carbonaceous chondrite meteorites.
CI1 fossils refer to alleged morphological evidence of microfossils found in five CI1 carbonaceous chondrite meteorite fall: Alais, Orgueil, Ivuna, Tonk and Revelstoke. The research was published in March 2011 in the fringe Journal of Cosmology by Richard B. Hoover, an engineer. However, NASA distanced itself from Hoover's claim and his lack of expert peer-reviews.
Ian Andrew Crawford is a British professor of planetary science and astrobiology at Birkbeck, University of London in the United Kingdom.
Meredith Perry is an American inventor, entrepreneur, and scientist, most well known for the invention of ultrasonic wireless power transmission. Perry won the University of Pennsylvania's Invention Competition, "PennVention" in 2011 for her ultrasonic wireless power transmission system, which she named "uBeam". Perry founded uBeam in 2011 and raised $40M from Founders Fund, Andreessen Horowitz, Mark Cuban, Marissa Mayer and other prominent investors.
Life Sciences in Space Research is a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering astrobiology, origins of life, life in extreme environments, habitability, effects of spaceflight on the human body, radiation risks, and other aspects of life sciences relevant in space research. It was established in 2014 and is published by Elsevier. It is an official journal of the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR), publishing papers in the areas that were previously covered by the Life Sciences section of Advances in Space Research, another official journal of COSPAR. The Editor-in-chief is Tom Hei.
Astrobiology Magazine , or Astrobiology Mag, is an American, formerly NASA-sponsored, international online popular science magazine that contains popular science content, which refers to articles for the general reader on science and technology subjects. The magazine reports on missions of NASA and other space agencies, as well as presents news of relevant research conducted by various institutions, universities, and non-profit groups. In addition, the magazine provides a forum through which researchers and the general public can oversee the progress made in fields of study that were associated with the science of astrobiology. The magazine was created by Helen Matsos, who was the chief editor and executive producer. It began publication in 1999.
The Center for Life Detection Science (CLDS) is an astrobiology research coordination network managed by NASA for the search for extraterrestrial life, and to bring concrete answers on how life began on Earth and where else in the Universe it could exist. The center will design and incorporate a variety of future missions with the capabilities of detecting life.
Amri Wandel is a senior scientist and Professor of Astrophysics at the Racah Institute of Physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Wandel is an expert in astrobiology and chairman of the Israeli Association of Astrobiology and Early Life. He is also president of the International Academy of Sciences San Marino.
