JpGU-AGU Joint Meeting 2020

Presentation information

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[E] Oral

M (Multidisciplinary and Interdisciplinary) » M-IS Intersection

[M-IS17] Astrobiology

convener:Hikaru Yabuta(Hiroshima University, Department of Earth and Planetary Systems Science), Seiji Sugita(Department of Earth and Planetary Science, Graduate School of Science Sciece, The University of Tokyo), Misato Fukagawa(National Astronomical Observatory of Japan), Fujishima Kosuke(Tokyo Institute of Technology, Earth-Life Science Institute)

[MIS17-06] Everyone’s an Astrobiologist

★Invited Papers

*Mary A Voytek1,2 (1.NASA Headquarters, 2.Earth-Life Science Institute, Tokyo Institute of Technology)

Humankind has been interested in our origins and the possibility of life beyond Earth for over 2500 years. Initially this interest was in the realm of the philosophers, but research focusing on the origin, evolution and distribution of life in the universe began in earnest more than 60 years ago. Since then, the field of Astrobiology was established to be an interdisciplinary effort that draws on knowledge from across the sciences to understand how a planet, e.g. Earth, evolved from an abiotic to a biotic state and to understand how 'life' could be identified against the complex backdrop of planetary processes that occur on terrestrial bodies. This is a critical time for astrobiology as space agencies identify the search for life as a top priority and plan missions to investigate bodies within our solar system and beyond. It is time to synthesize what we know and work together to understand how and where to look for life.