ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS….
One of the outstanding problems in current astrophysical research is identifying environments (in our solar system and beyond) that might be suitable for the appearance and evolution of life. Defining and recognizing habitability is a complex and highly multidisciplinary goal, that requires the convergence of a variety of expertises and includes many different research topics. A few of the questions which we need to answer along the way are: What makes the Earth habitable? How can we apply what we learned from Earth (and from unhabitable rocky planets in the solar system) to rocky planets around other stars? What is the role of the host star in making (or not) a planet habitable? Can there be a broader definition of habitability than the classical one based on the distance of a planet from its star? Does the overall environment in our galaxy have an impact on habitability? What is the evolution of climate and habitability on a terrestrial planet? How can we remotely detect evidence of habitability (and perhaps of life) on other planets?
To provide the proper context to look for an answer to these questions, we identify four major topics of research:
- Astrobiology
- Detection and characterization of transiting exoplanets
- Planet-star interaction
- Climate of terrestrial planets