Recent Progress in Chirality Research Using Circularly Polarized Light
  (abridged) We review recent studies of chirality using circularly polarized
light, along with the birth and evolution of life and planetary systems.
Terrestrial life consists almost exclusively of one enantiomer, left-handed
amino acids. This characteristic feature is called homochirality, whose origin
is still unknown. The route to homogeneity of chirality would be connected with
the origin and development of life on early Earth along with evolution of the
solar system. Detections of enantiomeric excess in several meteorites support
the possibility that the seed of life was injected from space, considering the
possible destruction and racemization in the perilous environment on early
Earth. Circularly polarized light could bring the enantiomeric excess of
prebiotic molecules in space. Recent experimental works on photochemistry under
ultraviolet circularly polarized light are remarkable. Recent astronomical
observations by imaging polarimetry of star-forming regions are now revealing
the distribution of circularly polarized light in space. Astrobiological view
on chirality of life would contribute to understanding of the origin and
development of life, from the birth and the end of stars and planetary systems
in space. Deep insights on terrestrial life, extrasolar life, and the origin of
life in the universe, would be brought by consideration of both of the place
where life is able to live, the "habitable" zone, and the place where life is
able to originate, what we shall call the "originable" zone.
