Ebook: Life Beyond Earth the Search for Habitable Worlds in the Universe

An engaging account of our quest for habitable environments, recounting fascinating recent discoveries and providing insight into future space missions.;Cover; Contents; Preface; 1 Introduction; 1.1 The quest for life; 1.2 The formation of planets; 1.2.1 Formation of the Solar System; 1.2.2 Migration in the Solar System; 1.2.3 Elemental and isotopic abundances as insights to the formation of the Solar System; 1.3 Looking for water; 2 What is life and where can it exist?; 2.1 The concept and conditions of life; 2.1.1 The building blocks of life; 2.1.2 Cells; 2.1.3 Origin of life on Earth; 2.1.4 Experiments on life: laboratory synthesis of amino acids; 2.1.5 Chirality and the specificities of human life.