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"This text for advanced undergraduates and graduate students takes a quantitative approach to understanding the processes that shape the origins and distribution of life in the Universe. It synthesises developments in fields spanning astronomy and physics to microbiology, biochemistry and geology to forge a state-of-the-art summary of astrobiology"--
List of contents
Part I. Astronomical Origins; 1. The foundations of astrobiology; 2. From the Big Bang to molecules; 3. Planet formation and migration; Part II. Earth; 4. Conditions on early Earth; 5. Origin(s) of life on Earth; 6. Co-evolution of life and environment on Earth; Part III. Habitability; 7. Instantaneous habitability; 8. Continuous habitability; Part IV. Astrobiological Targets; 9. Mars; 10. Icy worlds; 11. 'Exotic' life; 12. Detecting and characterising exoplanets; Part V. Detecting Life; 13. Biosignatures; 14. Technosignatures; Part VI. Futures; 15. The future of humankind; References; Author index; Subject index.
About the author
Manasvi Lingam is Assistant Professor of Aerospace, Physics and Space Sciences & Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at the Florida Institute of Technology (USA), with more than 100 papers spanning various physical sciences. He is the lead author of Life in the Cosmos (2021) and he is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.Amedeo Balbi is Associate Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy, where he has been teaching astrobiology for the past two decades. With an extensive publication record of more than 100 scientific papers, his research encompasses a wide array of topics in theoretical astrophysics.
