Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-qxdb6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T13:46:16.359Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Astrobiological landscape: a platform for the neo-Copernican synthesis?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 October 2012

Milan M. Ćirković  and
Branislav Vukotić
Milan M. Ćirković*
Affiliation:
Astronomical Observatory of Belgrade, Volgina 7, 11160 Belgrade, Serbia The Future of Humanity Institute, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford, Suite 8, Littlegate House, 16/17 St Ebbe's Street, Oxford, OX1 1PT, UK
Branislav Vukotić
Affiliation:
Astronomical Observatory of Belgrade, Volgina 7, 11160 Belgrade, Serbia
*
e-mail: mcirkovic@aob.rs
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We live in the epoch of explosive development of astrobiology, a novel interdisciplinary field dealing with the origin, evolution and the future of life. The relationship between cosmology and astrobiology is much deeper than it is usually assumed – besides a similarity in the historical model of development of these two disciplines, there is an increasing number of crossover problems and thematic areas which stem from considerations of Copernicanism and observation selection effects. Such a crossover area is both visualized and heuristically strengthened by introduction of the astrobiological landscape, describing complexity of life in the most general context. We argue that this abstract landscape-like structure in the space of astrobiological parameters is a concept capable of unifying different strands of thought and research, a working concept and not only a metaphor. By analogy with phase spaces of complex physical systems, we can understand the astrobiological landscape as a set of viable evolutionary histories of life in a particular region of space. It is a notion complementary to the classical concept of biological morphological space, underscoring the fact that modern astrobiology offers a prospect of both foundational support and vast extension of the domain of applicability of the Darwinian biological evolution. Such a perspective would strengthen foundations upon which various numerical models can be built; the lack of such quantitative models has often been cited as the chief weakness of the entire astrobiological enterprise.

Keywords

astrobiologybiological evolutionextraterrestrial intelligencehistory and philosophy of science
Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Astrobiology , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , January 2013 , pp. 87 - 93
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Annis, J. (1999). An astrophysical explanation for the great silence. J. Br. Interplanet. Soc. 52, 19–22 (preprint astro-ph/9901322).Google Scholar
Bracewell, R.N. (1975). The Galactic Club: Intelligent Life in Outer Space. W. H. Freeman, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Brin, G.D. (1983). The ‘great silence’: the controversy concerning extraterrestrial intelligence. Q. J. R. Astron. Soc. 24, 283–309.Google Scholar
Brush, S.G. (1983). Statistical Physics and the Atomic Theory of Matter: From Boyle and Newton to Landau and Onsager. Princeton University Press, Princeton.Google Scholar
Ćirković, M.M. (2012). The Astrobiological Landscape: Philosophical Foundations of the Study of Cosmic Life. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Ćirković, M.M. & Vukotić, B. (2008). Astrobiological phase transition: towards resolution of Fermi's paradox. Orig. Life Evol. Biosph. 38, 535–547.Google Scholar
Crow, M.J. (1986). The Extraterrestrial Life Debate 1750–1900. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Darwin, C. (1859). On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. Murray, London.Google Scholar
Edwards, H.G.M. (2004). Raman spectroscopic protocol for the molecular recognition of key biomarkers in astrobiological exploration. Orig. Life Evol. Biosph. 34, 3–11.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Freeman, J. & Lampton, M. (1975). Interstellar archaeology and the prevalence of intelligence. Icarus 25, 368–369.Google Scholar
Fry, I. (2000). The Emergence of Life on Earth: A Historical and Scientific Overview. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick.Google Scholar
Gonzalez, G. (2005). Habitable zones in the universe. Orig. Life Evol. Biosph. 35, 555–606.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gonzalez, G., Brownlee, D. & Ward, P. (2001). The galactic habitable zone: galactic chemical evolution. Icarus 152, 185–200.Google Scholar
Gould, S.J. (1985). The paradox of the first tier: an agenda for paleobiology. Paleobiology 11, 2–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoyle, F. (1957). The Black Cloud. William Heinemann Ltd, London.Google Scholar
Kaltenegger, L., Fridlund, M. & Kasting, J. (2002). Review on habitability and biomarkers. In Earth-like Planets and Moons. Proc. 36th ESLAB Symp., eds Foing, B. & Battrick, B., 3–8 June 2002, ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands, pp. 277–282.ESA Publications Division, Noordwijk.Google Scholar
Lineweaver, C.H. (2001). An estimate of the age distribution of terrestrial planets in the universe: quantifying metallicity as a selection effect. Icarus 151, 307–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lineweaver, C.H., Fenner, Y. & Gibson, B.K. (2004). The galactic habitable zone and the age distribution of complex life in the Milky Way. Science 303, 59–62.Google Scholar
McKay, D.S. et al. (1996). Search for past life on mars: possible relic biogenic activity in Martian meteorite ALH84001. Science 273, 924–930.Google Scholar
Summers, M.E., Lieb, B.J., Chapman, E. & Yung, Y.L. (2002). Atmospheric biomarkers of subsurface life on Mars. Geophys. Res. Lett. 29, 24–1.Google Scholar
Tsokolov, S.A. (2009). Why is the definition of life so elusive? Epistemological considerations. Astrobiology 9, 401–412.Google Scholar
Vukotić, B. (2010). The set of habitable planets and astrobiological regulation mechanisms. Int. J. Astrobiol. 9, 81–87.Google Scholar
Vukotić, B. & Ćirković, M.M. (2007). On the timescale forcing in astrobiology. Serb. Astron. J. 175, 45–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ward, P.D. & Brownlee, D. (2000). Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe. Springer, New York.Google Scholar
Webb, S. (2002). Where is Everybody? Fifty Solutions to the Fermi's Paradox. Copernicus, New York.Google Scholar
Wright, S. (1932). The roles of mutation, inbreeding, crossbreeding, and selection in evolution. In Proc. Sixth Int. Congress on Genetics, ed. Jones, D.F., vol. I, pp. 355–366. Brooklyn Botanic Garden, New York.Google Scholar