Introduction to Astrobiology: The Study of The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Life

The Origins of Life on Earth

Photo by Denise Jans on Unsplash

Why should you read this article?

This article gives an introduction to astrobiology: the study of life. It will cover a definition of life and a description of the early development of life on Earth.

Introduction

Being a student of astrophysics and an ex-student of biochemistry, astrobiology is one of my favorite topics (and since I also managed to get a computer science degree, it’s natural for me to also consider future artificial life as part of my curiosity).

I love how we need to connect knowledge of several scientific fields, to study life in the Universe:

• biology to understand life itself,
• physics and astronomy to know where and how to look for it at the enormous distances in the universe,
• chemistry to understand the reactions and basis for life
• geology to understand planets and what is needed for life to be supported

Let’s start with the first important topic.

What is life?