Earth & SkyGreek → English
Exobiology
/ˌɛksoʊbaɪˈɑlədʒi/noun
The search for and study of life beyond Earth.
The Greek roots
ἔξω
éxō
outside
βίος
bíos
life
λόγος
lógos
study, account
Literally: “study of outside life”
The story of the word
Joshua Lederberg coined it in 1960, three years after Sputnik made the question practical rather than literary, and he pushed hard for sterilising spacecraft so that we would not find our own bacteria and mistake them for Martians. Sceptics called it the only science with no subject matter. The name has largely given way to astrobiology, which is broader and can point to specimens on this planet.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1960
Same family
astrobiologyexoskeletonexodusexotic
In a sentence
The Viking landers carried the first serious exobiology experiments to another planet.