Abstract
“Are we alone?” or “Is Anybody Out There?” have been permanent quandaries among mankind from the ancient times to now. In this book, we are discussing the diversity of life on Earth and possibly on other celestial bodies. We always consider the phenomena of life as we know it on Earth, with the requirements for it being liquid water and carbon-based biochemistry, plus other nutrients and energy sources. In this presentation, we precluded the possibility of life as we do not know it. It is a formidable challenge to find other habitable planets or satellites, which might contain signatures of life (de Vera and Seckbach, 2013). In addition, of finding water in the search for life, we have also to search for biomolecules in our galaxy. Indeed, astrobiologists have discovered regions in our galaxy that might have the potential for producing very complex organic molecules and the starting point for the development of life. Let us examine life on Earth and compare it with some extraterrestrial conditions.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
7. References
Altenbach AV, Bernhard JM, Seckbach J (eds) (2012) Anoxia: evidence for eukaryote survival and paleontological strategies, vol 21, Cellular origin, life in extreme habitats and astrobiology. Springer, Dordrecht
Castenholz RW, McDermott TR (2010) The cyanidiales ecology, biodiversity, and biogeography. In: Seckbach J, Chapman DJ (eds) Red algae in genome age. Cellular origin, vol 13, Life in extreme habitats and astrobiology. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 357–371
Chela-Flores J (2011) The science of astrobiology: a personal view on learning to read the book of life, vol 20, Cellular origin, life in extreme habitats and astrobiology. Springer, Dordrecht
de Vera J-P, Seckbach J (eds) (2013) Habitability of other planets and satellites. Cellular origin, life in extreme habitats and astrobiology. Springer (in preparation)
de Vera J-P, Horneck G, Rettberg P, Ott S (2003) The potential of lichen symbiosis to cope with extreme conditions of outer space – I. Influence of UV radiation and space vacuum on the vitality of lichen symbiosis and germination capacity. Int J Astrobiol 1:285–293
de Vera J-P, Horneck G, Rettberg P, Ott S (2004) The potential of the lichen symbiosis to cope with the extreme conditions of outer space. II: Germination capacity of lichen ascospores in response to simulated space conditions. Adv Space Res 33:1236–1243
Hoover RB (2011) Fossils of Cyanobacteria in CI1 carbonaceous meteorites: implications to life on comets, Europa, and Enceladus. J Cosmol 13:03–06
Horikawa D (2011) Survival of Tardigrades in extreme environments : a model animal for astrobiology. In: Altenbach AV, Bernhard JM, Seckbach J (eds) Anoxia: evidence for eukaryote survival and paleontological strategies, vol 21, Cellular origin, life in extreme habitats and astrobiology. Springer, Dordrecht
McKay DS, Gibson EK Jr, Thomas-Keprta KL, Vali H, Romanek CS, Clemett SJ, Chillier XDF, Maechling CR, Zare RN (1996) Search for past life on Mars: possible relic biogenic activity in Martian meteorite ALH84001. Science 273(5277):924–930. http://www.sciencemag.org/content/273/5277/924.short-aff-6
McNichol JC, Gordon R (2012) Are we from outer space? A critical review of the panspermia hypothesis. In: Seckbach J (ed) Genesis – in the beginning: precursors of life, chemical models and early biological evolution. Springer, Dordrecht
Oren A, Seckbach J (2001) Oxygenic photosynthetic microorganisms in extreme environments. In: Elster J, Seckbach J, Vincent WF, Lhotsky O (eds) Algae and extreme environments: ecology and physiology. Proceeding of the international conference, 11–16 Sept 2000, Trebon, Czech Republic, pp 13–31. J. Cramer in der Gebr. Borntraeger Verlagsbuchhandlung Berin Stuttgard 2001
Raggio J, Pintado A, Ascaso C, De La Torre R, De Los Ríos A, Wierzchos J, Horneck G, Sancho LG (2011) Whole lichen thalli survive exposure to space conditions: results of Lithopanspermia experiment with Aspicilia fruticulosa. Astrobiology 11(4):281–292
Rothschild LJ, Mancinelli RL (2001) Life in extreme environments . Nature 409:1092–1101
Seckbach J (ed) (1994) Evolutionary pathways and enigmatic algae: Cyanidium caldarium (Rhodophyta) and related cells. Kluwer Academic Publisher, Dordrecht
Seckbach J (ed) (1999) Enigmatic microorganisms and life in extreme environments. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht
Seckbach J (ed) (1999–2012) Cellular origin, life in extreme habitats and astrobiology. Springer, Dordrecht. www.springer.com/series/5775
Seckbach J (ed) (2000) Journey to diverse microbial world. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht
Seckbach J (ed) (2007) Algae and Cyanobacteria in extreme environments. Springer, Dordrecht
Seckbach J (2010) Overview of Cyanidian biology. In: Seckbach J, Chapman DJ (eds) Red algae in genome age, vol 13, Cellular origin, life in extreme habitats and astrobiology. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 345–356
Seckbach J, Baker FA, Shugarman PM (1970) Algae thrive under pure CO2. Nature 227:744–745
Seckbach J, Oren A, Stan-Lotter H (eds) (2013) Polyextremophiles: life under multiple forms of stress, vol 26, Cellular origin, life in extreme habitats and astrobiology. Springer (in preparation)
Vreeland RH, Rosenzweig WD, Powers DW (2000) Isolation of a 250 million-year-old halotolerant bacterium from a primary salt crystal. Nature 407:897–900
Wickramasinghe C (2012) Origin of life and panspermia. In: Seckbach J (ed) Genesis – in the beginning: precursors of life, chemical models and early biological evolution. Springer, Dordrecht
Wolfe-Simon F, Switzer BJ, Kulp TR, Gordon GW, Hoeft SE, Pett-Ridge J, Stolz JF, Webb SM, Weber PK, Davies PCW, Anbar AD, Oremland RS (2011) A bacterium that can grow by using arsenic instead of phosphorus. Science 332:1163–1166
6. Acknowledgements
The author thanks Fern Seckbach, Professors Julian Chela-Flores, David J. Chapman, and specifically Stephan Kempe for reading the text and making helpful suggestions.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Seckbach, J. (2012). Pathways to Life on Earth and Other Planetary Bodies. In: Hanslmeier, A., Kempe, S., Seckbach, J. (eds) Life on Earth and other Planetary Bodies. Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology, vol 24. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4966-5_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4966-5_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-4965-8
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-4966-5
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)