Theory Nexus

The search for life beyond Earth has captured imagination for centuries and is a question that astronomers, planetary scientists, and astrobiologists have only recently begun to address systematically. Recent discoveries of exoplanets that lie within the habitable zones of their stars have significantly boosted the chances of finding life elsewhere. Astrobiology, a relatively new field that focuses on the study of life in the Universe, is one of the few fields of science that offer such a vast horizon to explore. Astrobiology is an interdisciplinary field that combines biology, chemistry, geology, astronomy, and physics to explore the possibility of life beyond Earth. Astrobiologists seek to discover how life emerged on Earth and how it may have arisen elsewhere in the Universe, alongside a better comprehension of the physical and chemical conditions that exist in our cosmic community. Such investigations may involve looking for extant or extinct microbial life on other planets, examin...