Welcome to the Wikiversity Center for Exobiology, part of the School of Biology.

How common are the conditions required for life?

Exobiology, also known as xenobiology or astrobiology, is a speculative field within biology concerned with extraterrestrial life.

The Center for Exobiology is a Wikiversity content development project where participants create, organize and develop learning resources about the search for life beyond Earth.

## Contents

* 1 Where are the data?
* 1.1 Possible data
* 1.2 Learning resources
* 1.3 References
* 1.4 See Also
* 2 External Links

# Where are the data?[edit | edit source]

Terrestrial Planet Finder.

Astrobiology is an idea in search of data. Many scientists expect that life is common, probably having come into existence on millions of planets. However, astrobiology is a speculative field within biology; nobody has evidence for extraterrestrial life. Astrobiology includes the concept of artificial life, since any life form with human-like intelligence could conceivably create artificial life in a laboratory. Such artificial life might be more suitable than a biological organism for interstellar travel. While currently funded efforts in astrobiology focus on planetary exploration and attempts to detect planets with Earth-like atmospheres, it has been suggested that we should also look closely at Earth for signs that alien artificial life is already here.

## Possible data[edit | edit source]

* Search for life on Mars
* Liquid water on Europa
* Replacement of phosphorus by arsenic in living organisms

## Learning resources[edit | edit source]

* The Drake Equation
* can human like intelligence evolve under water?
* can comets incubate life and seed it to planets?

## References[edit | edit source]

## See Also[edit | edit source]

* Astrosociobiology
* UFO research

# External Links[edit | edit source]

* Search for life on Mars
* NASA astrobiology
* NASA exobiology
* Astrobiology Magazine News
* www.astrobiology.com
* discussion group
* Astrobiology Survey \- An introductory course on astrobiology