Life on Earth and other Planetary Bodies [Hardcover]

A trio of editors [Professors from Austria, Germany and Israel] present Life on Earth and other Planetary Bodies. The contributors are from twenty various countries and present their research on life here as well as the possibility for extraterrestrial life. This volume covers concepts such as lifes origin, hypothesis of Panspermia and of life possibility in the Cosmos. The topic of extraterrestrial life is currently hot and the object of several congresses and conferences. While the diversity of normal biota is well known, life on the edge of the extremophiles is more limited and less distributed. Other subjects discussed are Astrobiology with the frozen worlds of Mars, Europa and Titan where extant or extinct microbial life may exist in subsurface oceans; conditions on icy Mars with its saline, alkaline, and liquid water which has been recently discovered; chances of habitable Earth-like [or the terrestrial analogues] exoplanets; and SETIs search for extraterrestrial Intelligence.This volume covers aspects of life on Earth with all its diversity and the possibilities of extraterrestrial life. It presents contributions by experts from 20 countries who discuss astrobiology emphasizing life as we know it to extraterrestrial places.List of Contributors
Pathways to Life on Earth and Other Planetary Bodies; Joseph Seckbach
Introduction; Emeritus Giora Shaviv
Terestrial Halophylies, Evaporite Environments and The Search for Life on Mars; Roberto Barbieri and Nunzia Stivaletta
Vescicular Basalts as a Niche for Microbial Life; Barbara Cavalazzi, Frances Westall and Sherry L. Cady
Seti: Assessing Imaginative Proposals; Stephen P. Cook
Molecules Between the Stars; Nick Cox
Prokaryotic Communities Below Planetary Surfaces and Their Involvement In The Nitrogen Cycle; Friedrich W. Gerbl, Gerhard W. Weidler, Angelika Breitfuss, Marion Dornmayr-Pfaffenhuemer and Helga Stan-Lotter
Extrasolar Planets; El³'