Strategies of Life Detection

by Botta, Oliver; Bada, Jeffrey L.; Elvira, Javier Gomez; Javaux, Emmanuelle; Selsis, Franck

• ISBN13: 9780387775159
• ISBN10: 0387775153
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-08-30
• Publisher: Springer Verlag

Summary

The search for life outside the Earth has been one of the biggest quests of mankind. We have reached a level in technology that allows the first steps towards a scientific investigation. The aim of this workshop was to take an interdisciplinary look at the signatures that would be indicative for past or present life on another planet, to compare them to biosignatures on Earth, and to discuss state-of-the-art in-situ instruments that are envisioned to search for these signatures in the exploration of the solar system as well as concepts for the search for habitable planets around other stars.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. 1
Introduction
Towards a Definition of Life: The Impossible Quest?	p. 5
The Solar System
Infrared Spectroscopy of Solar-System Planets	p. 11
Extraterrestrial Organic Matter and the Detection of Life	p. 25
Astrobiology and Habitability of Titan	p. 37
An Approach to Searching for Life on Mars, Europa, and Enceladus	p. 49
Biosignatures
Morphological Biosignatures
Accretion, Trapping and Binding of Sediment in Archean Stromatolites-Morphological Expression of the Antiquity of Life	p. 55
Biogenerated Rock Structures	p. 81
Morphological Biosignatures in Early Terrestrial and Extraterrestrial Materials	p. 95
Molecular Biosignatures
Gene Transfer and the Reconstruction of Life's Early History from Genomic Data	p. 115
Molecular Biosignatures	p. 133
Fossil Lipids for Life-Detection: A Case Study from the Early Earth Record	p. 161
Chirality and Life	p. 187
Isotopic Biosignatures
Multiple-Sulphur Isotope Biosignatures	p. 203
Stable Isotope Ratios as a Biomarker on Mars	p. 221
In-Situ Instrumentation
Viking Biology Experiments: Lessons Learned and the Role of Ecology in Future Mars Life-Detection Experiments	p. 233
Morphological Biosignatures from Subsurface Environments: Recognition on Planetary Missions	p. 245
Exploration of the Habitability of Mars: Development of Analytical Protocols for Measurement of Organic Carbon on the 2009 Mars Science Laboratory	p. 255
Urey: Mars Organic and Oxidant Detector	p. 269
Raman Spectroscopy-A Powerful Tool for in situ Planetary Science	p. 281
Protein Microarrays-Based Strategies for Life Detection in Astrobiology	p. 293
Remote Sensing of (Exo)Planets
On the "Galactic Habitable Zone"	p. 313
Earthshine Observation of Vegetation and Implication for Life Detection on Other Planets	p. 323
Searching for Signs of Life in the Reflected Light from Exoplanets: A Catalog of Nearby Target Stars	p. 335
Exoplanet Transit Spectroscopy and Photometry	p. 345
Future Space Missions to Search for Terrestrial Planets	p. 355
Summary
"Strategies of Life Detection": Summary and Outlook	p. 371
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