[ExI] NAS Book: The Astrophysical Context of Life

[Amara Graps]

I discovered this free book at the National Academcies that
might be of interest to some people here. More than half of it is
political intergovernmental-speak, but the parts that discuss what we
currently know, and how we can improve our knowledge in looking
for life elsewhere, might be of interest to some here.

Amara


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The Astrophysical Context of Life
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11316.html  <-- Free PDF


Description

In 1997, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) formed
the National Astrobiology Institute to coordinate and fund research into
the origins, distribution, and fate of life in the universe. A 2002 NRC
study of that program, Life in the Universe: An Assessment of U.S. and
International Programs in Astrobiology, raised a number of concerns
about the Astrobiology program. In particular, it concluded that areas
of astrophysics related to the astronomical environment in which life
arose on earth were not well represented in the program. In response to
that finding, the Space Studies Board requested the original study
committee, the Committee on the Origins and Evolution of Life, to
examine ways to augment and integrate astronomy and astrophysics into
the Astrobiology program. This report presents the results of that
study. It provides a review of the earlier report and related efforts, a
detailed examination of the elements of the astrobiology program that
would benefit from greater integration and augmentation of astronomy and
astrophysics, and an assessment of ways to facilitate the integration of
astronomy with other astrobiology disciplines.

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The goals of this study are as follows:

* Identify areas where there can be especially fruitful collaboration
between astrophysicists, biologists, biochemists, chemists, and
planetary geologists.

* Define areas where astrophysics, biology, chemistry, and geology are
ripe for mutually beneficial interchanges and define areas that are
likely to remain independent for the near future.

* Suggest areas where current activities of the National Science
Foundation (NSF) and other federal agencies might augment NASA programs.

Although some preliminary work on this study was undertaken during the
committee meeting in October 2002, the study was not formally initiated
until the committee met at the National Academies Keck Center in
Washington, D.C., in March 2003. Work continued at meetings held at the
Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada, and at the National Academies
Beckman Center in Irvine, California, in July and October 2003,
respectively. An initial draft of the report was assembled in December
2003 and extensively revised during a meeting of the committee held at
the University of Arizona, in Tucson, in January 2004. A new draft was
created in February 2004 and circulated to the committee. It was revised
in March and sent out for external review in April.


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Amara Graps, PhD      www.amara.com
INAF Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario (IFSI), Roma, ITALIA
Associate Research Scientist, Planetary Science Institute (PSI), Tucson