Astrobiology is a remarkably interdisciplinary field. This reference serves as a key to understanding technical terms from the different subfields of astrobiology, including astronomy, biology, chemistry, the geosciences and the space sciences.

The interdisciplinary field of Astrobiology constitutes a joint arena where provocative discoveries are coalescing concerning, e.g. the prevalence of exoplanets, the diversity and hardiness of life, and its increasingly likely chances for its emergence. Biologists, astrophysicists, biochemists, geoscientists and space scientists share this exciting mission of revealing the origin and commonality of life in the Universe. The members of the different disciplines are used to their own terminology and technical language. In the interdisciplinary environment many terms either have redundant meanings or are completely unfamiliar to members of other disciplines. The Encyclopedia of Astrobiology serves as the key to a common understanding. Each new or experienced researcher and graduate student in adjacent fields of astrobiology will appreciate this reference work in the quest to understand the big picture. The carefully selected group of active researchers contributing to this work and the expert field editors intend for their contributions, from an internationally comprehensive perspective, to accelerate the interdisciplinary advance of astrobiology.

Long before Galileo published his discoveries about Jupiter, lunar craters, and the Milky Way in the Starry Messenger in 1610, people were fascinated with the planets and stars around them. That interest continues today, and scientists are making new discoveries at an astounding rate. Ancient lake beds on Mars, robotic spacecraft missions, and new definitions of planets now dominate the news. How can you take it all in? Start with the new Encyclopedia of the Solar System, Second Edition.This self-contained reference follows the trail blazed by the bestselling first edition. It provides a framework for understanding the origin and evolution of the solar system, historical discoveries, and details about planetary bodies and how they interact—and has jumped light years ahead in terms of new information and visual impact. Offering more than 50% new material, the Encyclopedia includes the latest explorations and observations, hundreds of new color digital images and illustrations, and more than 1,000 pages. It stands alone as the definitive work in this field, and will serve as a modern messenger of scientific discovery and provide a look into the future of our solar system.· Forty-seven chapters from 75+ eminent authors review fundamental topics as well as new models, theories, and discussions· Each entry is detailed and scientifically rigorous, yet accessible to undergraduate students and amateur astronomers· More than 700 full-color digital images and diagrams from current space missions and observatories amplify the chapters· Thematic chapters provide up-to-date coverage, including a discussion on the new International Astronomical Union (IAU) vote on the definition of a planet· Information is easily accessible with numerous cross-references and a full glossary and index

"The concept of earth system science embraces the integration of the myriad skeins of science and engineering that address the complexity of the natural system that is the earth and its surroundings."--p. vii.

The interplay between Geology and Biology has shaped the Earth from the early Precambrian, 4 billion years ago. Moving beyond the borders of the classical core disciplines, Geobiology strives to identify chains of cause-and-effect and synergisms between the geo- and the biospheres that have been driving the evolution of life in modern and ancient environments. Combining modern methods, geobiological information can be extracted not only from visible remains of organisms, but also from organic molecules, rock fabrics, minerals, isotopes and other tracers. An understanding of these processes and their signatures reveals enormous applied potentials with respect to issues of environment protection, public health, energy and resource management. The Encyclopedia of Geobiology has been designed to act as a key reference for students, researchers, teachers, and the informed public and to provide basic, but comprehensible knowledge on this rapidly expanding discipline that sits at the interface between modern geo- and biosciences.

Beautifully illustrated with over 140 full colour images, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Meteorites provides a thorough guide to these fascinating extraterrestrial rocks. Meteorites are our only contact with materials from beyond the Earth-Moon system. Using well known petrologic techniques, this book reveals in vivid colour their extraordinary external and internal structures. Looking deeper still, right to the atomic level, they begin to tell us of the environment within the solar nebula that existed before the planets accreted. In recent years, meteorites have caught the imagination of scientist and collector alike. An army of people are now actively searching for them in the hot and cold deserts of Earth. This book is a valuable guide to assist the searchers in the field to recognize the many classes of meteorites. It is further a reference source for students, teachers and scientists who wish to probe deeper these amazing rocks from space.

Concise and self-contained, this textbook gives a graduate-level introduction to the physical processes that shape planetary systems, covering all stages of planet formation. Writing for readers with undergraduate backgrounds in physics, astronomy, and planetary science, Armitage begins with a description of the structure and evolution of protoplanetary disks, moves on to the formation of planetesimals, rocky, and giant planets, and concludes by describing the gravitational and gas dynamical evolution of planetary systems. He provides a self-contained account of the modern theory of planet formation and, for more advanced readers, carefully selected references to the research literature, noting areas where research is ongoing. The second edition has been thoroughly revised to include observational results from NASA's Kepler mission, ALMA observations and the JUNO mission to Jupiter, new theoretical ideas including pebble accretion, and an up-to-date understanding in areas such as disk evolution and planet migration.

Examines the origins of life on Earth and the search for extraterrestrial life, through an understanding of the factors that have allowed life to exist on this planet and the commonalities on others that may enable life elsewhere.

The technique of the mapping of planetary surfaces and the methods used for the identification of various planetary landforms improved much in the last 400 years. Until the 20th century, telescopic observers could interpret planetary landforms solely based on their appearance, while today various data sets acquired by space probes can be used for a more detailed analysis on the composition and origin of the surface features. Before the Greeks, the Earth and the Heavens were indisputably of different origin and nature. It was a major philosophical breakthrough - first appeared as an a priori theory, later based on observations - that the Heavens (planetary bodies) and the Earth share common features: gravity, composition and solar distance may be different, but the nature of the physical processes shaping the landforms are essentially the same. It has been a long way since we have arrived from the first telescopic description of lunar craters to the identification of various geological formations on Mars or on minor planets. Relief features of the Moon have first been observed by Galileo Galilee, via his telescope. During the next centuries, a multitude of Lunar landforms have been identified. Theories based on observations have been connected together by a scientific paradigm which explained their origin in a logical and seemingly undisputable manner. Telescopes showed a Lunar surface full of circular landforms, called craters, a landscape with no parallel on Earth. But the individual landforms had a morphological equivalent, volcanoes, which naturally led to the conclusion that craters had been created by volcanic processes. Maria ("seas") served as natural basins for water bodies. Observations clearly showed that water and air are hardly found on the Moon, the lack of clouds indicated the lack of precipitation. But the flat surface of the maria (obviously composed of marine sediments) and the meandering valleys suggested the presence of liquid water and a higher atmospheric pressure in the past - during the age of active volcanism and degassing. There were no observable active volcanic processes but some craters (though to be volcanoes) have been observed as being active: flashes of light - interpreted as eruptions - have been reported by several observers. The presence of pyroclasts thrown out from the volcanic vents of craters provided an independent evidence: meteor showers and individual meteorites falling from the sky - originating from Lunar craters. The logical and interconnected set of explanations based on observations proved to be completely false by the second half of the 20th century. The new paradigm interpreted the very same features in a new context. The case of Mars was different. There were no telescopes capable of observing relief forms (no shadows on Mars are visible from the Earth, because Mars always shows a nearly full Mars phase), so only albedo features could be seen and used for interpretation. The lack of visible relief features were interpreted as a lack of considerable topography: an unnoticed distortion in the observational data. The hue and contrast of dark and bright, orange, grey and white spots have changed seasonally, the polar areas clearly showed a polar cap made of ice and snow, but clouds have not been observed. Since Mars is farther away from the Sun than the Earth, it was evident that temperature values are lower there. Scientists concluded that Mars is an ancient, arid world. Then contemporary geology taught the theory according to which waters on the Earth are going to infiltrate underground in time, making the surface dry - observations showed that this had already happened on Mars. The last surface reservoirs of water were the polar caps. Some observers reported seeing a global network of linear features, but other have only seen very few of such albedo markings. These features were interpreted as "canals," made by a civilization for irrigation, carrying water from the poles to all around the flat plains of Mars. What was observable from the Earth were the broad stripes of irrigated vegetation (like those along the Nile), the canals themselves were too narrow to be visible from here. All theories converged - supposing that the features seen by some, but not seen by others, were real. There was no chance for verification until spacecrafts have been developed which were able to make local observations. Instead of canals, the first pictures returned revealed a surface full of craters - a landform not expected by anyone. A paradigm shift was needed to explain the features of the "new" Mars. On the Moon, features were observable, but the interpretation was wrong. On Mars, only blurred albedo markings could be observed, along with sharp lines of imagination, which again were interpreted falsely. In the case of Venus, there was no data on surface features. Only its bright cloud top could be observed from the Earth. But this fact along with the planet's orbital parameters provided enough information for a popular view on its surface conditions: a hot world (inferred from its proximity to the Sun) and also a rainy one (from its complete cloud cover). The conclusion: Venus is a global jungle possibly with dinosaurs, like the hot and wet world of the then-discovered Mesozoic era. Our current knowledge originated from these early attempts of interpreting surface conditions and geological origin of landforms from a very little set of available data. Today we have a huge set of images and other physical data which makes it possible to create models on the inner structure and thermal history of planetary bodies. Combined data sets lead to better supported models on the formation of surface features. Today we believe that most models give reliable explanation for the origin of planetary landforms. New, higher resolution images reveal new sets of meso- and microscale landforms, while images from previously not imaged dwarf planets, satellites, asteroids and cometary nuclei show landforms never seen before. In the future exoplanets are expected to provide brand new types of relief features no predictable by our Earth-and Solar System bound imagination. There are so many different landforms on planetary surfaces that it is nearly impossible for anybody to overview all of them who does not work exactly with that certain feature type. The Encyclopedia helps with presenting the landforms in searchable, alphabetical order. The book contains more than a simple list of various features: it provides context and connections between them and point to their origin. For example sand dunes were found on Venus, Mars and Titan, fluvial valleys and shorelines are present on Mars and Titan, impact craters have many different types - all are presented and explained here. Beyond the texts, references, schematic figures, images and planetary maps accompany the description of landforms, providing a wide background for detailed analyses even for geomorphologists working in planetary science. This book is to help the reader to discover the great variety of planetary landforms.