List of Contributors -- Pathways to Life on Earth and Other Planetary Bodies -- Terestrial Halophylies, Evaporite Environments and The Search for Life on Mars -- Vescicular Basalts as a Niche for Microbial Life -- Molecules Between the Stars -- Prokaryotic Communities Below Planetary Surfaces and Their Involvement In The Nitrogen Cycle -- Life Without Water: The Sleeping Chironomid and Other Anhydrobiotic Invertebrates and their Utilization in Astrobiology -- Habitability and Cosmic Catastrophes -- Glaciopanspermia: Seeding the Terrestrial Planets with Life? -- Chemical Evolution In Primeval Seas -- Terrestiral Analogues for Early Planetary Oceans: Niuafo‘Ou Caldera Lakes (Tonga) and their Geology, Water Chemistry and Stromatolites; -- Comparison of Environment Types with Liquid Water on Mars -- Criteria of Possible Habitability of Earth-Like Exoplanets -- Origin of the Genetic Code and Abiotic Synthesis of Organic Compounds -- Dynamical Aspects for the Earth’s Habitability -- A Dynamic Scheme to Assess Habitability of Exoplanets -- The Likelihood of Halophilic Life in the Universe -- Production of Dormant Stages and Stress Resistance of Polar Cyanobacteria -- Can the Evolution of Multicellularity be Anticipated in the Exoploration of the Solar System? -- Antarctica as Model for the Possible Emergence of Life on Europa -- The Likelihood of Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life -- The Astrobiological Potential of Polar Dunes on Mars -- Life in Earth’s Lava Caves: Implications for Life Detection on Other Planets -- Life in the Saturnian Neighborhood.

This volume covers aspects of life on Earth with all its diversity and the possibilities of extraterrestrial life. It presents contributions by experts from 20 countries who discuss astrobiology emphasizing life “as we know it” to extraterrestrial places. In the chapters on life in the Cosmos, the authors emphasized in particular certain planets and satellites within the Solar System. On Earth, life also exists at the edge with harsh limitations (such as extremophiles growing in severe environments). Some chapters address the extremophiles in niches of microbial life in terrestrial halo-environments, the local life without water, and the dormancy of polar cyanobacteria, while others focus on microorganisms dwelling in severe conditions such as lava caves. All those conditions of harsh environments, including the Antarctic biota, could serve as analogues for other planets. Special stress is given to the frozen worlds of Mars; Europa, the satellite of Jupiter; and life in the Saturn neighborhood with its moon Titan. The subsurface under the icy layers of these celestial bodies may contain large oceans that have extant or extinct microbial life. Other chapters discuss the habitability of exoplanets, Galacticpanspermia, molecules, and prokaryotes below the planetary surface, halophile life in the Universe, and the SETI search for extraterrestrial intelligence in the Cosmos.