Related papers: A secular increase in continental crust nitrogen d…
It is known that a gamma ray burst (GRB) originating near the Earth could be devastating to life. The mechanism of ozone depletion and subsequent increased UVB exposure is the primary risk, but models also show increased nitrification…
We compute the ozone distribution for a model terrestrial paleoatmosphere in which the present oxygen abundance is largely replaced by carbon dioxide, which we argue is a reasonable working assumption. In principle, the presence of carbon…
Chemical disequilibrium in planetary atmospheres has been proposed as a generalized method for detecting life on exoplanets through remote spectroscopy. Among solar system planets with substantial atmospheres, the modern Earth has the…
The glaciological record of atmospheric composition suggests O2 has declined over the last 800000 years at an average rate of 0.3 x 1012 mol (Tmol) O2 yr-1. Because the geological carbon cycle regulates long term atmospheric oxygen…
The giant impact hypothesis for Moon formation successfully explains the dynamic properties of the Earth-Moon system but remains challenged by the similarity of isotopic fingerprints of the terrestrial and lunar mantles. Moreover, recent…
Conventional planet formation theory suggests that chondritic materials have delivered crucial atmospheric and hydrospheric elements such as carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and hydrogen (H) onto primitive Earth. However, recent measurements…
This brief review will discuss the current knowledge on the origin and evolution of the nitrogen atmospheres of the icy bodies in the solar system, particularly of Titan, Triton and Pluto. An important tool to analyse and understand the…
We comprehensively compile and review N content in geologic materials to calculate a new N budget for Earth. Using analyses of rocks and minerals in conjunction with N-Ar geochemistry demonstrates that the Bulk Silicate Earth (BSE) contains…
The instability with respect to global glaciation is a fundamental property of the climate system caused by the positive ice-albedo feedback. The atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration at which this Snowball bifurcation occurs changes…
Our present-day atmosphere is often used as an analog for potentially habitable exoplanets, but Earth's atmosphere has changed dramatically throughout its 4.5 billion year history. For example, molecular oxygen is abundant in the atmosphere…
Giant impacts can generate transient hydrogen-rich atmospheres, reducing atmospheric carbon. The reduced carbon will form hazes that rain out onto the surface and can become incorporated into the crust. Once heated, a large fraction of the…
Nitrogen, the most abundant element in Earth's atmosphere, exists as a diatomic gas under standard temperature and pressure. In the two-dimensional (2D) limit, atomically thin nitrogen, termed nitrogene, has been theoretically predicted to…
A plausible explanation for the absence of primordial argon, krypton, and xenon in Titan's current atmosphere is that these gases were sequestered in clathrate hydrates during Titan's "open-ocean" phase. We examine how clathrate hydrate…
The dominant reservoirs of elemental nitrogen in protoplanetary disks have not yet been observationally identified. Likely candidates are HCN, NH$_3$ and N$_2$. The relative abundances of these carriers determine the composition of…
Titan, Saturn's largest satellite, maintains an atmosphere composed primarily of nitrogen (N$_2$) and methane (CH$_4$) that leads to a complex organic chemistry. Some of the nitriles (CN-bearing organics) on Titan are known to have…
Global temperature is a fundamental climate metric highly correlated with sea level, which implies that keeping shorelines near their present location requires keeping global temperature within or close to its preindustrial Holocene range.…
Neutral hydrogen clouds with high column density detected towards distant quasars are unique probes of elemental nucleosynthesis and chemical evolution in the low metallicity regime. They provide measurements for several elements at very…
The evolution of the atmospheric noble gas composition during the past few decades has hardly been studied because, in contrast to many other atmospheric gases, systematic time-series measurements have not been available. Based on…
Planet formation impacts exoplanet atmospheres by accreting metals in solid form, leading to atmospheric C/O and S/N ratios that deviate from their host stars. Recent observations indicate differing metal abundances in planetary atmospheres…
A comparison of northern and southern hemispheric paleotemperature profiles suggests that the Bolling-Allerod Interstadial, Younger Dryas stadial, and subsequent Preboreal warming which occurred at the end of the last ice age were…