The plausibility of origins scenarios requiring two impactors
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Hydrogen cyanide delivered by cometary impactors can be concentrated as ferrocyanide salts, which may support the initial stages of prebiotic chemistry on the early Earth. One way to achieve the conditions required for a variety of prebiotic scenarios, requiring for example the formation of cyanamide and cyanoacetylene, is through the arrival of a secondary impactor. In this work, we consider the bombardment of the early Earth, and quantitatively evaluate the likelihood of origins scenarios that invoke double impacts. Such scenarios are found to be possible only at very early times ($>\,$4\,Gya), and are extremely unlikely settings for the initial stages of prebiotic chemistry, unless (i) ferrocyanide salts are stable on 1000\,yr timescales in crater environments, (ii) there was a particularly high impact rate on the Hadean Earth, and (iii) environmental conditions on the Hadean Earth were conducive to successful cometary delivery (i.e., limited oceanic coverage, and low ($\lesssim 1$\,bar) atmospheric surface pressure). Whilst environmental conditions on the early Earth remain subject to debate, this work highlights the need to measure the typical lifetime of ferrocyanide salts in geochemically realistic environments, which will determine the plausibility of double impact scenarios.
Source: Apollo (University of Cambridge)
DOI: 10.17863/cam.113639
Authors: Anslow, Richard, Bonsor, Amy, Rimmer, Paul, Rae, Auriol, McDonald, Catriona, Walton, Craig
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W6887847310
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