Astrobiology (other terms have been exobiology, exopaleontology, bioastronomy and xenobiology) is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe. This interdisciplinary field encompasses the search for habitable environments in our Solar System and habitable planets outside our Solar System, the search for evidence of prebiotic chemistry, life on Mars and other bodies in our Solar System, laboratory and field research into the origins and early evolution of life on Earth, and studies of the potential for life to adapt to challenges on Earth and in outer space.

Courtesy - Wikipedia

The course is scientific intrinsically and a multidisciplinary one. It is a future science and will the rage in the coming future. It clicks big time in the US though in India it still has to make its mark. NASA does employ astrobiologists aplenty