Cienciamiento

Although the question of whether life could exist in other worlds apart from our planet is as old as western culture (it was already raised by ancient Greek philosophers), it could be asserted that only after the advent of the “space age” the matter has reached the status of a scientific concern. Nowadays, astrobiology permeates widely the field of space sciences, and it is the main reference subject in some research areas such as planetary sciences. Furthermore, the astrobiological perspective guides some study lines in different disciplines, from biology and astronomy (obviously), to geology, through chemistry and biochemistry, physics etc., making astrobiology a most typical transdisciplinary area. Therefore, astrobiology is somehow a field in construction, and even its pillars have still to be accurately outlined. This is the case with one of its most basic questions: the definition of life; a cardinal matter in order to determine the further research strategies that have not been