Education Paper The Astrobiology Primer: An Outline of General

The Astrobiology Primer has been created as a reference tool for people interested in the interdisciplinary field of astrobiology. The field incorporates many diverse research endeavors but it is our hope that this slim volume will present you with all you need to know to become involved and to understand, at least at a fundamental level, the state of the art. Each section includes a brief overview of a topic and a short list of readable and important literature for those interested in deeper knowledge. Because of the great diversity of material, each section was written by a different author with a different expertise. All contributors are listed in the back. We have entitled the Primer version 1 in hope that it will be only the first in a series, produced every three to five years. This way we can insure that the Primer keeps up with the current state of research. We hope that it will be a great resource for anyone trying to keep up with an ever-changing field. If you have noticed any errors of fact or wish to be involved in future incarnations of the project, please contact me. Astrobiology, the study of life as a planetary phenomenon, aims to understand the fundamental nature of life on earth and the possibility of life elsewhere. To achieve this goal, astrobiologists have initiated unprecedented communication between the disciplines of astronomy, biology, chemistry, and geology, incorporating information and systems theory methods. The fundamental questions of what ” life ” means and how it arose have brought in broad philosophical concerns, while the practical limits of space exploration have meant that engineering plays an important roll as well. The benefits of this interdisciplinary collaboration have been, and continue to be, immense. The input of scientists from multiple areas has forced researchers to become aware of their basic assumptions and why they do science the way they do. Cooperation has led to insights about the many connections between life and the atmosphere, oceans, and crust of Earth. Comparisons of geologic and atmospheric features on Earth, Mars, and Venus have provided insight into their different histories and what part life may or may not have played. Likewise, the growing body of data about planets orbiting distant stars (as well as smaller bodies orbiting our own star) has revealed much about the formation of our own planetary system and how stars and planets