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Intro & Overview |
NASA Astrobiology
Institute Objectives The goal of the NAI Astronomy Focus Group is to ensure that there is a strong astronomical component to the growing field of astrobiology. This goal will be accomplished by two different elements of the Astronomy Focus Group: 1) The Astronomy Focus Group will serve as an advocate and source of advice for achieving scientific goals of astrobiological significance with current and future NASA missions. The outcome of advocacy workshops will be publicly available white papers. 2) The Astronomy Focus Group will hold workshops on selected topics of astrobiological interest in order to foster dialogue and bridge gaps in knowledge between astronomy and overlapping astrobiological disciplines. Review papers will be one outcome of these workshops. Background and Significance to Astrobiology The NASA Astrobiology Roadmap defines astrobiology as the defines astrobiology as the study of the origins, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe. Although new astrobiology disciplines have been developed (e.g., evogenomics), the well established field of astronomy has yet to have its fullest impact on astrobiology or to draw significant scientific benefits from "cross-pollinationî research opportunities". The NAI Astronomy Focus Group was established September 2003 to to influence the field of astrobiology in a significant fashion by helping to develop a strong astronomical component to astrobiology research. This astronomical component includes topics regarded as pure astronomy but also new subdisciplinary topics fostered by interaction among researchers in different, yet overlapping, fields of research.
Mid-infrared
image of the young star Beta Pictoris and its circumstellar disk.
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