Evaluating Cometary Delivery of Organics to the Early Earth

Abstract

An approximate calculation of the amount of organic material (OM) delivered to the Earth by comets during the first 700 million years of the planet's existence has been carried out. Approximation formulas based on lunar-crater data have been used for the flux of bodies colliding with the Earth. The calculations of impact velocities have been performed with allowance made for dragging and ablation of bodies in the atmosphere. Semianalytical models used in these calculations take into account the increase in the cross-sectional area of a disrupted meteoroid due to aerodynamic forces, as well as specific features of radiative heat transfer at large optical depths. Particular attention has been given to oblique trajectories that correspond to the perigee distances of cometary orbits close to the Earth's radius. Kilometer-sized comets, which arrived at the surface with low velocities, contributed largely to the mean OM flux under conditions of a dense early terrestrial atmosphere. For the atmosphere with a near-surface pressure of 10 bars, this flux comprises (1–40) × 107 kg per year. As will be shown below, rare but highly probable events of atmospheric entry of large (∼10 km) comets along oblique trajectories may have produced high local concentrations of organic molecules.