The Search for Planetary Habitability

“宇宙中的其他地方也存在生命吗？”是行星科学中最引人注目的问题之一，也是STFC路线图中的主要问题之一。这个问题引起了更广泛的公众的极大兴趣，因为它支撑着一些基本问题，如我们的文明是否独特，我们在宇宙中的长期未来是什么，以及我们的文明所处的天文背景。从科学角度来看，寻找宜居条件将揭示宇宙中生命起源的条件是否不寻常，如果不是，其他生命的性质是什么，它告诉我们关于地球上生命及其天文和行星环境的共同进化的什么。在其他地方最有可能发现的生命是微生物，所以这项提议的重点是寻找支持微生物生命的条件。然而，没有生命也可能存在宜居条件，我们的工作将试图理解这些条件是如何发生的，以及我们如何在其他地方检测到它们。在这个联盟中，我们计划实施一项协调努力，研究宇宙中的宜居条件，这将促进我们对宜居条件如何形成的理解，并提高我们检测它的能力。为了成功地做到这一点，我们召集了在天体生物学和建造仪器方面具有专业知识的团队。通过这种方式，我们可以更有效地开发下一代工具来寻找宜居条件。我们的工作有许多副产品，包括公共宣传、教育和实际的社会利益，我们已经确定了具体的项目和贡献。它们包括将我们的专业知识应用于地质废物(核能和二氧化碳)的储存，以及改善英国各地学校的跨学科科学教育，包括教师培训。

'Does life exist elsewhere in the Universe?' is one of the most compelling questions in planetary sciences and constitutes one of the main questions in STFC's roadmap. The question has immense interest to the wider public since it underpins fundamental questions about the whether our civilisation is unique, what our long-term future is in the Universe and the astronomical context in which our civilisation sits. From a scientific point of view, the search for habitable conditions will reveal whether the conditions for the origin of life are unusual in the Universe, and if they are not, what is the nature of other life and what does it tell us about the co-evolution of life on Earth and its astronomical and planetary environment. The most likely life to be found elsewhere is microbial and so this proposal focuses on searching for conditions that would support microbial life. However, habitable conditions could also exist without life and our work will attempt to understand how these conditions could arise and how we might detect them elsewhere.In this consortium we plan to implement a coordinated effort to study habitability in the Universe that will both advance our understanding of how habitable conditions form and improve our ability to detect it. To successfully do this we have brought together groups with expertise in astrobiology and building instruments. In this way we can more effectively develop the next generation of instruments to search for habitable conditions.Our work has many spin-offs into public outreach, education and practical societal benefits for which we have identified specific projects and contributions. They including applications of our expertise to the storage of geological waste (nuclear and carbon dioxide) and improving the education of interdisciplinary science in schools across the UK, including teacher training.