Keywords

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Astrobiology, as a scientific viable discipline, is a fast growing and emerging science. This is so because of the fantastic increase in technological means and methods to discover extra solar planets. Our space age, which provides us with incredible and powerful satellites like CoRot and Kepler, allows the detection of planetary systems in which not only giant gaseous planets revolve around a central star but also Earth-like planets (ELPs) covered with a significant fraction of their area with liquid (not necessarily water). On one hand, several planetary systems containing few planets were discovered. On the other hand, over a thousand planets discovered so far, some tens appear to be ELPs and several systems with a number of planets were discovered. What can we expect from such planets? What kind of worlds there are? In particular, can we find planets the temperature and atmospheric pressure on which are close to the triple point of a certain molecule to facilitate unfamiliar and may be never speculated forms of life?

The discovery of any form of life on an extraterrestrial planet will be one of the most fantastic and extraordinary discoveries of mankind and is bound to have profound impact on all facets of life as we know them on our planet. The search for life on ELPs and the evolution of ELPs toward the formation of habitable zones (HZ) is what this compilation of papers is all about. The collection spans from the discovery of ELPs to esoteric forms of life, found under extreme conditions, to the structure of young planets and the planetary evolution toward the creation of a HZ and its eventual disappearance.

While the list of covered topics is long, it may not be everything relevant and the complexity of the problem may still be beyond us. For example, the role of the Greenhouse Effect, greenhouse gases emitted naturally, etc., are still not clear. Why Venus is so hot? Long time evolution of planets insolated by main sequence stars of different types, etc., to name just few examples.

Astrobiology and the search for extraterrestrial life may sound as subjects detached from our daily life here on Mother Earth. This is a very wrong perception. It is during these times that we witness how whatever goes on the Earth is intimately connected to astronomical phenomena, the sun (which does not serve only as an energy source), and the galaxy at large. Understanding our evolution on a timescale of decades and potential fate on much longer timescales is closely related to the questions posed in this compilation of papers. Where will global warming bring mankind? How global warming is connected and affected by cosmic phenomena and what mankind can and should do to preserve life on our planet in this corner of the Milky Way galaxy.