Читать книгу Astrobiology - Charles S. Cockell - Страница 16

In this introductory chapter, we discussed what astrobiology is. We found it to be a useful way to consider life in its cosmic context. It addresses a set of scientific questions that include the origin of life, the possibility of life elsewhere, and the past and future of life on Earth. Many of the questions that astrobiology addresses are philosophically ancient, but it has in recent years gained the empirical knowledge to begin to address new questions about life in the Universe. This has been driven in particular by: (i) technological advances in space missions that allow us to directly investigate extraterrestrial environments, and (ii) our growing understanding about the past and future of life on Earth.