Astrobiology, the Emergence of Life, and Planetary Exploration

Astrobiology brings together all the scientific specialties focused on deciphering origin of life, its nature and evolution, and possible distri-bution in the universe. Exceptionally rapid progress has been made over the past four decades; including new insights into how life began on Earth, the continuous extension of boundaries within which we can find life thriv-ing in the most hostile terrestrial environments, the evidence of common presence of liquid water in the universe, a controversial discovery of past life in a Martian meteorite, and the existence of Earth-like planets orbiting starts of Milky Way. Although, the only planet we know of that host life in our solar system, and perhaps in the universe is, still, Earth, scientists con-tinue to search for clues that could reveal the origin and distribution of life elsewhere.