Astrobiologists

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Scientists investigating the likelihood of life existing in space and the various environments that could make this possible
2. Researchers examining extraterrestrial life and the potential habitats that could sustain it
3. Experts who explore the possibilities and conditions for life in the universe outside our planet

Etymology: Astrobiologists are scientists who study whether life exists, or could exist, beyond Earth. The field's name is a plain construction: "astro-", from the Greek "astēr" meaning star, joined to "biologist", a person who studies living things. The Greek root "astēr" is the source of "astro-" in many English words, from "astronomy" to "astronaut", so the term reads as "one who studies life among the stars." The second element carries a longer history. "Biologist" is built from "bios", Greek for life, and "logos", meaning study or discourse, through the Latin and New Latin "biologia", and then English "biology", with the agent suffix "-ist" added to name a practitioner. Attaching "astro-" to "biologist" therefore turns a discipline of life sciences into one aimed at the cosmos. The word is a modern compound, and its parts are far older than the combination. Its plural form, "astrobiologists", simply names more than one such scientist.

Synonyms: exobiologists, space biologists