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Phoenix's atmospheric measurements of isotope ratios of carbon and oxygen gave evidence for liquid water on the surface now or in the recent geological past.[1]Also its 2008 observations of possible droplets on its legs suggested new ways that water could be stable temporarily on Mars.[2] These observations lead many scientists to reassess the present habitability of Mars
- ↑ Phoenix Mars Lander Finds Surprises About Planet’s Watery Past University of Arizona news, By Daniel Stolte, University Communications, and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory | September 9, 2010
- ↑ First liquid water may have been spotted on Mars, New Scientist, February 2009 by David Shiga
Featured articles on astrobiology:
- Astrobiology
- Abiogenesis - about natural process of how life arises from non living matter
- Panspermia - transfer of life between plaents on meteorites.
- Terrestrial analogue sites
- Murchison meteorite
On life on Mars:
- Possible Present Day Habitats For Life On Mars
- Life on Mars
- Present day Mars habitability analogue environments on Earth
- Viking program
- Allan Hills 84001 - the meteorite with tiney structures resembling cells
On life in other locations
On planetary protection:
You can also browse the entire site here:
- Select [►] to view subcategories (note work in progress, needs re-organization)
Scope of this encyclopedia
- Astrobiology in its broadest sense.
- Not Biology in general - e.g. extremophiles only if of special interest to astrobiolgy. Origins of life but mainly as it relates to abiogenesis, or ideas of astrobiology.
- Not SETI. Except in as far as it relates to the biology of extra terrestrials.
- Not fictional treatments of astrobiology in science fiction movies / books / TV series.
Re-use of the material
Much of the material here originates in Wikipedia and is attributed to them as required. The re-used material has to be licensed under the same license, so any content here that originated in Wikipedia is automatically under the same license, CC by SA, that it can be re-used by anyone, for any purpose, including commercially, so long as it is attributed correctly.
That includes Wikipedia itself of course. They are welcome to use any of this content back in Wikipedia so long as it is released with a suitable license, as is the case for all the material that originated there.
Guidelines for editing
If you've wanted to make encyclopedic articles about astrobiology but find Wikipedia frustrating as an editor, this may be useful. The main differences are that it's a small wiki and I expect only a few people will work on it, and that it will be run on a basis of a high level of mutual respect for each other's content.
Otherwise similar to wikipedia - mainspace articles to be reasonably encyclopaedic, well sourced. And in the main space, the aim is to present the full range of views on any topic.
Why a new encyclopedia?
Wikipedia has lots of great content contributed by people who knew their subject well. However as it matured, many left Wikipedia and large areas of the encyclopedia have stagnated. That's especially true of astrobiology. Many of the articles have had few substantial edits for years. Some of the remaining editors do bold but careless edits. I set this up after the original for Possible Present Day Habitats For Life On Mars was deleted from Wikipedia. None of those who voted to delete it seemed to know that searching for such habitats and for signs of extant life in them is one of the top science goals of NASA and ESA! It can be a similar situation sometimes for minor fixes and contributions. And sadly, this doesn't seem likely to change any time soon. For more about the background see my Alice In Wonderland Sanctioning In Wikipedia - Blocked For Covering NASA's Science Goal To Search For Habitats For Life On Mars‽. This can make editing Wikipedia a frustrating experience. So, I've copied the material over into this new wiki where we can work on updating the material and add new articles, without this issue that your material may be deleted at any time by people who are unfamiliar with the topic.
Vision
- Will proceed more like scholarpedia where if someone contributes a good and substantial article, or has done substantial work on it, then they are treated as the main author of the article or section, and others are expected to ask them to approve significant changes.
- For collaborative articles. It's only me editing at present. But anyone can in join in working on it. The idea again is to respect content contributed by other editors. Hopefully don't need a lot of guidelines.
- Encouraged to disclose real world identities and experts welcome here, and their expertise will be respected as such.
Guidelines
If you've wanted to make encyclopedic articles about astrobiology but find Wikipedia frustrating as an editor, and especially if you have had good accurate edits reverted in an arbitrary seeming fashion, this may be useful.
With that background in mind:
- Will proceed more like scholarpedia where if someone contributes a good and substantial article, or has done substantial work on it, then they are treated as the main author and others are expected to ask them to approve significant changes.
- Similar also for collaborative articles. It's only me editing at present. But anyone can in join in working on it. The idea again is to respect content contributed by other editors. Hopefully don't need a lot of guidelines.
- Encouraged to disclose real world identities and experts welcome here, and their expertise will be respected as such.
Otherwise similar to wikipedia - mainspace articles to be reasonably encyclopaedic, well sourced. And in the main space, the aim is to present the full range of views on any topic.
Why a new encyclopedia?
Wikipedia has lots of great content contributed by people who knew their subject well. However as it matured, many left Wikipedia and large areas of the encyclopedia have stagnated. That's especially true of astrobiology. Many of the articles have had few substantial edits for years. Some of the remaining editors do bold but careless edits. I set this up after the original for Possible Present Day Habitats For Life On Mars was deleted from Wikipedia. None of those who voted to delete it seemed to know that searching for such habitats and for signs of extant life in them is one of the top science goals of NASA and ESA! It can be a similar situation sometimes for minor fixes and contributions. And sadly, this doesn't seem likely to change any time soon. For more about the background see my Alice In Wonderland Sanctioning In Wikipedia - Blocked For Covering NASA's Science Goal To Search For Habitats For Life On Mars‽. This can make editing Wikipedia a frustrating experience. So, I've copied the material over into this new wiki where we can work on updating the material and add new articles, without this issue that your material may be deleted at any time by people who are unfamiliar with the topic.
Blogs
I've also set up a test blog, where one can post original research or opinions and points of views. , whatever one wants related to astrobiology:
I haven't decided how to do it yet - may have a special "Blogs" namespace or may put it in user space. Either way, idea is to link to your blog from the main page.
Robertinventor (talk) 00:53, 30 August 2018 (UTC)
