Astrobiology : the quest for the conditions of life / Gerda Horneck, Christa Baumstark-Khan, eds.

Berlin ; New York : Springer, [2002], ©2002.

xv, 411 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm.

From molecular clouds to the origins of life / Pascale Ehrenfreund and Karl M. Menten -- The diversity of extrasolar planets around solar-type stars / Stéphane Udry and Michel Mayor -- Habitable zones in extrasolar planetary systems / Siegfried Franck ... [et al.] -- Viable transfer of microorganisms in the solar system and beyond / Gerda Horneck ... [et al.] -- Water, the spring of life / André Brack -- Geomorphological record of water-related erosion on Mars / Ralf Jaumann ... [et al.] -- Europa's crust and ocean: how tides create a potentially habitable physical setting / Richard Greenberg ... [et al.] -- Permafrost model of extraterrestrial habitat / David A. Gilichinsky -- Microbial life in terrestrial permafrost: methanogenesis and nitrification in gelisols as potentials for exobiological processes / Dirk Wagner ... [et al.] -- Life in cold lakes / Erko Stackebrandt and Evelyne Brambilla -- Hyperthermophilic microorganisms / Karl O. Stetter -- Halophilic microorganisms / Hans Jörg Kunte, Hans G. Trüper and Helga Stan-Lotter -- Martian atmospheric evolution: implications of an ancient intrinsic magnetic field / Helmut Lammer, Willibald Stumptner and Gregorio J. Molina-Cuberos -- The ultraviolet radiation environment of Earth and Mars: past and present / Charles S. Cockell -- Ultraviolet radiation in planetary atmospheres and biological implications / Petra Rettberg and Lynn J. Rothschild -- Environmental UV radiation: biological strategies for protection and avoidance / David D. Wynn-Williams and Howell G.M. Edwards -- Life under conditions of ionizing radiation / Christa Baumstark-Khan and Rainer Facius -- Graviperception and graviresponse at the cellular level / Richard Bräucker, Augusto Cogoli and Ruth Hemmersbach -- Gravistimulated effects in plants / Heide Schnabl -- Gravitational zoology: how animals use and cope with gravity / Ralf H. Anken and Hinrich Rahmann -- Scaling phenomena and the emergence of complexity in astrobiology / Juan Pérez-Mercader -- Molecular self-assembly and the origin of life / Wolfgang M. Heckl -- Search for morphological and biogeochemical vestiges of fossil life in extraterrestrial settings: utility of terrestrial evidence / Manfred Schidlowski -- Space activities in exo-astrobiology / Bernard H. Foing.

Includes bibliographical references and index.