Search for New Life Forms on Earth and in Space Is Focus of Reports in the Journal Astrobiology.

NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. -- Can extreme environments on Earth or planets within and beyond our solar system support novel life forms--a question explored in a series of papers presented in the October 2005 issue (Volume 5, Number 5) issue of Astrobiology, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. Two key papers in the series are available free online at www.liebertpub.com/ast.

This collection of provocative reports, derived from presentations made at the "8th International Conference on Bioastronomy," demonstrates the scope of exciting research topics being explored in the field of bioastronomy today, including factors affecting the habitability of extrasolar, Earth-like planets.

"Just as life on the early Earth had to endure and adapt to circumstances that could only be described as challenging, so too would life forms that have come to be on planets beyond our Solar System," says journal Editor, Sherry L. Cady, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Geology at Portland State University.

The issue features a research paper entitled, "Cosmic Ray Impact on Extrasolar Earth-Like Plants in Close-in Habitable Zones." Authors J-M Griessmeier, Ph.D., and colleagues from Technische Universitat Braunschweig (Germany), the Russian Academy of Sciences (Apatity, Russia), and the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Graz, Austria), studied the potential effects of cosmic ray energy on extrasolar Earth-like planets that exist in habitable zones. They conclude that the atmospheric surface pressure on these terrestrial planets may not be high enough to protect potential living systems from the detrimental effects of a cosmic ray shower. Exposure to high energy cosmic rays can have damaging effects on an organism's genetic material and could compromise the habitability of these planetary systems

Richard Schwarz, Ph.D., and colleagues from the Institutes for Astronomy at the University of Vienna, Austria, and at Eotoyos University, Budapest, Hungary, describe the dynamics of hypothetical Earth-like planets that would have the ability to maintain stable orbits outside our solar system, in a paper entitled, "Trojans in Habitable Zones." The authors predict that the probability of life formation is great for a Trojan planet that has a stable orbit and stays in the so-called "habitable zone" for a long time.

Astrobiology is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published bimonthly in print and online. The journal provides a forum for scientists seeking to advance our understanding of life's origins, evolution, distribution and destiny in the universe.

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 60 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available at www.liebertpub.com.