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The Chemistry of the Origin of Life

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Astrobiology: Future Perspectives

Part of the book series: Astrophysics and Space Science Library ((ASSL,volume 305))

Abstract

Astrobiology is an emerging interdisciplinary science that investigates experimentally the origin of life on the Earth and its distribution in the Universe. It encompasses scientific disciplines from astronomy to geology, chemistry, paleontology, biology and ecology with the goal to understand — to name only a few examples — the formation of solar systems (through detection of extrasolar planetary system and the exploration of our Solar system), to investigate the origin and prebiotic formation of organic compounds that could have been important for the origin of life on the Earth (including the origin of chirality), to determine the age of the oldest molecular fossils and other indicators on Earth to constrain the time for the origin of life, or to understand the complexity of the earliest organisms by phylogenetic and biochemical analysis and of modern organisms. This interdisciplinary approach is necessary to understand the implications in the different fields and to close the gaps in our knowledge, for example on the role of RNA in ancient organisms, the origin of protein biosynthesis or, in another field, the surface conditions on the early Earth. Astrobiology also has strong influences on future space missions, such as the Rosetta mission to investigate the composition of a comet, or future missions to Mars that very likely will carry instruments to search for traces of extinct or extant life on that planet.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Astrobiology Laboratory, Leiden Institute of Chemistry, University of Leiden, The Netherlands

    Oliver Botta

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  1. Oliver Botta
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Leiden Observatory, The Netherlands

    Pascale Ehrenfreund

  2. University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA

    William Irvine

  3. University of Hawaii, Honolulu, USA

    Toby Owen

  4. University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

    Luann Becker

  5. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, USA

    Jen Blank

  6. Naples Observatory, Naples, Italy

    John Brucato  & Luigi Colangeli  & 

  7. ENS de Chimie de Paris, Paris, France

    Sylvie Derenne

  8. Bordeaux Observatory, Floirac, France

    Anne Dutrey  & Didier Despois  & 

  9. UNAM, México D.F., México

    Antonio Lazcano

  10. LEME, Paris, France

    Francois Robert

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Botta, O. (2004). The Chemistry of the Origin of Life. In: Ehrenfreund, P., et al. Astrobiology: Future Perspectives. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 305. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-2305-7_15

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