Encyclopedia of Astrobiology

Astrobiology seeks to study the origin, evolution and distribution of life in the universe, and is a multi-disciplinary field encompassing geology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, biology, engineering and computer science. As a relatively new discipline, astrobiology gained prominence in the 1950s when NASA funded its first astrobiology project. The discipline has since grown through the expansion of space exploration, and fuelled by the discovery of microbes living on earth in extreme environments, such as in hydrothermal vents in the deep ocean or the ice of Antarctica.

Debuting in 2011 to critical acclaim (RR 2013/099), the Encyclopedia of Astrobiology is now...