Astrobiology is not (yet) a real field of study. We don't know of any extra planetary life. There isn't (yet) anything for an astrobiologist to do.
Astronomers do look for new planets using a range of techniques, usually involving changes in the light of a star as a planet passes in front or it, or around it. No method of detecting exoplantets is able to detect life on those planets (but new methods are being develped)
They also look for signs of life on planets and moons of the solar system, for example the mars rovers, or under the ice of Ganymede.
Neither. For one thing our exo-planet finding technology currently doesn't allow us to know enough about the planets for any of that. Not even close. About all we can determine is their distance from the star, mass, radius, length of year, etc. And not necessarily all of that about each planet. "Astrobiologists" mainly study extremophiles and extreme environments on Earth. Quotes because it's not exactly a real field at this time. Christopher McKay is a NASA scientist and on many TV shows he is described as an "astrobiologist". But his phd is actually in astrogeophysics....
Astrobiology is a wanky pseudoscience. No life of any kind has ever been detected up in the sky. Probably it never will be.
I'd bet most of them spend their time making up stuff for public lectures, being consultants for the hysteria channel and checking web sites like MUFON.
New planets are sought by astronomers, especially those who man real scientific instruments like multi-million dollar telescopes. Some of them spend lot of time analysing data. This is a far cry from the smoke and mirrors of astrobiologists.
Planets in the solar system are a study for planetologists, most of whom have degrees in geology.
Astrobiology, at the moment, is pretty close to science fiction... based on a few parameters - how close a planet is to a star, what kind of atmosphere it *might* have - they conjecture what life forms *might* be there... Considering the wide range of life on *this* planet - from the boring to the terrifying creatures both big and small - it's somewhat worthless until we'll finally get an actual sample of ET life...
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Astrobiology is not (yet) a real field of study. We don't know of any extra planetary life. There isn't (yet) anything for an astrobiologist to do.
Astronomers do look for new planets using a range of techniques, usually involving changes in the light of a star as a planet passes in front or it, or around it. No method of detecting exoplantets is able to detect life on those planets (but new methods are being develped)
They also look for signs of life on planets and moons of the solar system, for example the mars rovers, or under the ice of Ganymede.
Neither. For one thing our exo-planet finding technology currently doesn't allow us to know enough about the planets for any of that. Not even close. About all we can determine is their distance from the star, mass, radius, length of year, etc. And not necessarily all of that about each planet. "Astrobiologists" mainly study extremophiles and extreme environments on Earth. Quotes because it's not exactly a real field at this time. Christopher McKay is a NASA scientist and on many TV shows he is described as an "astrobiologist". But his phd is actually in astrogeophysics....
Astrobiology is a wanky pseudoscience. No life of any kind has ever been detected up in the sky. Probably it never will be.
I'd bet most of them spend their time making up stuff for public lectures, being consultants for the hysteria channel and checking web sites like MUFON.
New planets are sought by astronomers, especially those who man real scientific instruments like multi-million dollar telescopes. Some of them spend lot of time analysing data. This is a far cry from the smoke and mirrors of astrobiologists.
Planets in the solar system are a study for planetologists, most of whom have degrees in geology.
Cheers!
Astrobiology, at the moment, is pretty close to science fiction... based on a few parameters - how close a planet is to a star, what kind of atmosphere it *might* have - they conjecture what life forms *might* be there... Considering the wide range of life on *this* planet - from the boring to the terrifying creatures both big and small - it's somewhat worthless until we'll finally get an actual sample of ET life...
Neither, they mostly theorize about alien life, and look forward to day when they get some real data.