Life’s Requirements Habitability and Biological Potential (In Planetary Astrobiology, 2020)



VPL Authors

Full Citation: Hoehler, T. M., Bains, W., Davila, A., Parenteau, M. N., and Pohorille, A. (2020). Life’s Requirements, Habitability, and Biological Potential. In Planetary Astrobiology (V. S. Meadows et al., eds.), pp. 37-70. Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, DOI: 10.2458/azu_uapress_9780816540068-ch002.

Abstract: A vast diversity of environments exists within and beyond Earth. To the extent life depends on and interacts materially with its environment, it can be expected that life-hosting potential among these environments varies as much as the physical and chemical properties that define them. To understand this potential demands that we first understand life’s requirements in some detail. Discussion of these requirements is frequently undertaken in considering “habitability.” Cockell et al. (2016) argue that the term “habitability” is inherently binary: An environment either can or cannot sustain life. This is an important starting point in evaluating the life-hosting potential of…

URL: https://doi.org/10.2458/azu_uapress_9780816540068