Publication Date:
2005-04-09
Description:
We show that the escape of hydrogen from early Earth's atmosphere likely occurred at rates slower by two orders of magnitude than previously thought. The balance between slow hydrogen escape and volcanic outgassing could have maintained a hydrogen mixing ratio of more than 30%. The production of prebiotic organic compounds in such an atmosphere would have been more efficient than either exogenous delivery or synthesis in hydrothermal systems. The organic soup in the oceans and ponds on early Earth would have been a more favorable place for the origin of life than previously thought.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Tian, Feng -- Toon, Owen B -- Pavlov, Alexander A -- De Sterck, H -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2005 May 13;308(5724):1014-7. Epub 2005 Apr 7.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Astrophysical and Planetary Science Department, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA. tian@colorado.edu〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15817816" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Amino Acids/chemistry
;
*Atmosphere
;
Carbon Dioxide/chemistry
;
Diffusion
;
*Earth (Planet)
;
Electricity
;
Evolution, Chemical
;
Evolution, Planetary
;
*Hydrogen/chemistry
;
Models, Theoretical
;
Oceans and Seas
;
Organic Chemicals/*chemistry
;
Origin of Life
;
Photochemistry
;
Seawater
;
Temperature
;
Ultraviolet Rays
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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