Astrobiology Strategy
Astrobiology research sponsored by NASA focuses on three basic questions: How does life begin and evolve? Does life exist elsewhere in the Universe? How do we search for life in the Universe? Over the past 50 years, astrobiologists have uncovered a myriad of clues to answering these Big Questions.
Since the astrobiology community published its last Astrobiology Roadmap in 2008, research in the field has focused more and more on the link between the “astro” and the “bio” in astrobiology—that is, what makes a planetary body habitable. “Habitability” has become a major buzzword in astrobiology as researchers have learned more about extraterrestrial environments in our Solar System and beyond and deepened their understanding of how and when the early Earth became habitable.
Why is Earth habitable? How, when, and why did it become habitable? Are, or were, any other bodies in our Solar System habitable? Might planets orbiting other stars be habitable? What sorts of stars are most likely to have habitable planets? These are just a few of the questions that astrobiologists are trying to answer today.
In preparing this new science strategy, hundreds of members of the astrobiology community collaborated in an intensive process of defining goals and objectives for astrobiology research moving forward. The community identified six major topics of research in the field today:
- Identifying abiotic sources of organic compounds
- Synthesis and function of macromolecules in the origin of life
- Early life and increasing complexity
- Co-evolution of life and the physical environment
- Identifying, exploring, and characterizing environments for habitability and biosignatures
- Constructing habitable worlds
This 2015 Astrobiology Strategy identifies questions to guide and inspire astrobiology research on each of these topics—in the lab, in the field, and in experiments flown on planetary science missions—over the next decade. The strategy also identifies major ongoing challenges that astrobiologists tackle as they attempt to answer these universal questions.
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Summary
1 IDENTIFYING ABIOTIC SOURCES OF ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
1.1 Why is This Topic Important?
1.2 What Does This Research Entail?
1.3 Progress in the Last Ten Years
1.4 Areas of Research Within Abiotic Sources of Organic Compounds
I. What Were the Sources, Activities, and Fates of Organic Compounds on the Prebiotic Earth?
II. What is the Role of the Environment in the Production of Organic Molecules?
III. What is the Role of the Environment on the Stability and Accumulation of Organic Molecules?
IV. What Constraints Can the Rock Record Place on the Environments and Abiotic Reactions of the Early Earth?
1.5 Challenges for the Next Ten Years
2 SYNTHESIS AND FUNCTION OF MACROMOLECULES IN THE ORIGIN OF LIFE
2.1 Why is This Topic Important?
2.2 What Does This Research Entail?
2.3 Progress in the Last Ten Years
2.4 Areas of Research within Synthesis and Function of Macromolecules in the Origin of Life
I. Paths to Today’s DNA/RNA/Protein-Dominated World
2.5 Challenges for the Next Ten Years
3 EARLY LIFE AND INCREASING COMPLEXITY
3.1 Why is This Topic Important?
3.2 What Does This Research Entail?
3.3 Progress in the Last Ten Years
3.4 Areas of Research within Early Life and Increasing Complexity
I. Origin and Dynamics of Evolutionary Processes in Living Systems: Theoretical Considerations
II. Fundamental Innovations in Earliest Life
III. Genomic, Metabolic, and Ecological Attributes of Life at the Root of the Evolutionary Tree (LUCA)
IV. Dynamics of the Subsequent Evolution of Life
V. Common Attributes of Living Systems on Earth
4 CO-EVOLUTION OF LIFE AND THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT
4.1 Why is This Topic Important?
4.2 What Does This Research Entail?
4.3 Progress in the Last Ten Years
4.4Areas of Research Within Co-Evolution of Life and the Physical Environment
I. How Does the Story of Earth—Its Past, Present, and Future—Inform Us about How the Climates, Atmospheric Compositions, Interiors, and Biospheres of Planets Can Co-Evolve?
II. How Do the Interactions between Life and Its Local Environment Inform Our Understanding of Biological and Geochemical Co-Evolutionary Dynamics?
III. How Does Our Ignorance About Microbial Life on Earth Hinder Our Understanding of the Limits to Life?
4.5 Challenges for the Next Ten Years
5 IDENTIFYING, EXPLORING, AND CHARACTERIZING ENVIRONMENTS FOR HABITABILITY AND BIOSIGNATURES
5.1 Why is this topic important?
5.2 What does this research entail?
5.3 Progress in the last ten years
5.4 Areas of Research within Identifying, Exploring, and Characterizing Environments for Habitability and Biosignatures
I. How Can We Assess Habitability on Different Scales?
II. How Can We Enhance the Utility of Biosignatures to Search for Life in the Solar System and Beyond?
III. How Can We Identify Habitable Environments and Search for Life within the Solar System?
IV. How Can We Identify Habitable Planets and Search for Life beyond the Solar System
Current Techniques and Strategies for Life Detection
6 CONSTRUCTING HABITABLE WORLDS
6.1 What makes an environment habitable?
6.2 Why is this topic important?
6.3 What does this research entail?
6.4Progress in the Last Ten Years
6.5 Areas of Research within Constructing Habitable Worlds
I. What are the Fundamental Ingredients and Processes That Define a Habitable Environment?
II. What are the Exogenic Factors in the Formation of a Habitable Planet?
III. What Does Earth Tell Us about General Properties of Habitability (and What is Missing)?
IV. What Are the Processes on Other Types of Planets That Could Create Habitable Niches?
V. How Does Habitability Change Through Time?
6.6 Questions and Challenges for the Next Ten Years
7 CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN ASTROBIOLOGY
7.1 Where Are We Now?
I. What is Life?
II. How Will We Know When We Have Found Life?
III. Can We Draw the Boundary Between Prebiotic Chemistry and Life?
IV. How Can We Account for “Weird Life” That May Have Alternative Biochemistry or Alternative Habitability Constraints?
V. How Should Astrobiology Approach Perturbations to Planetary Biospheres by
Technological Civilizations on Earth and Elsewhere in the Universe?
VI. How Does Astrobiology Relate to Other Fields, and How Does It Operate in the Context of Those Other Efforts?
7.2 Confronting these Challenges Creates Additional Benefits
Editor-in-chief: Lindsay Hays
