Formation, Detection, and Characterization of Extrasolar Habitable Planets (IAU S293)

This discovery of several Earth-like planets within the habitable zones of their host stars has triggered extensive research on the formation, dynamical evolution, interior dynamics, and atmospheric characteristics of extrasolar habitable planets. IAU Symposium 293 presents a collection of articles on the state-of-the-art research on these topics, including new discoveries of habitable exoplanets. The volume starts by reviewing the current state of the detection of habitable planets, and after guiding the reader through the most recent theoretical and observational achievements on the discovery and understanding of potential life-harboring bodies, concludes by presenting the reader with a review of the upcoming missions that search for Earth-like planets around other stars, and the likely signatures of extraterrestrial life. This comprehensive, up-to-date and technical volume targets those seeking to understand the origin of life and the possibility and detection of life elsewhere in the Universe.

• Presents a comprehensive collection of articles on the current state of research on the existence and detection of habitable worlds around other stars
• Features cross-disciplinary reviews on the characteristics of habitable worlds, providing theorists with the most recent models of the formation of habitable planets
• Examines state-of-the-art theories of the formation and evolution of planets that could potentially harbor life, fostering links between normally disparate fields
• Will appeal to those interested in space missions, especially those designed to detect life