The DOI matches its Crossref record; 31 of the 31 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Microbial habitability of the Hadean Earth during the late heavy bombardment
Abstract
Lunar rocks and impact melts, lunar and asteroidal meteorites, and an ancient martian meteorite record thermal metamorphic events with ages that group around and/or do not exceed 3.9 Gyr. That such a diverse suite of solar system materials share this feature is interpreted to be the result of a post-primary-accretion cataclysmic spike in the number of impacts commonly referred to as the late heavy bombardment (LHB). Despite its obvious significance to the preservation of crust and the survivability of an emergent biosphere, the thermal effects of this bombardment on the young Earth remain poorly constrained. Here we report numerical models constructed to probe the degree of thermal metamorphism in the crust in the effort to recreate the effect of the LHB on the Earth as a whole; outputs were used to assess habitable volumes of crust for a possible near-surface and subsurface primordial microbial biosphere. Our analysis shows that there is no plausible situation in which the habitable zone was fully sterilized on Earth, at least since the termination of primary accretion of the planets and the postulated impact origin of the Moon. Our results explain the root location of hyperthermophilic bacteria in the phylogenetic tree for 16S small-subunit ribosomal RNA, and bode well for the persistence of microbial biospheres even on planetary bodies strongly reworked by impacts.
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“Regardless, an LHB would likely not sterilize Earth (26); any microbial life would have rebounded (27).”
From The Archean atmosphere (2020) · cites this paper as [26]
In the citing paper
“This viewpoint is strengthened by evidence that indicates Earth may never have been fully sterilized during the LHB (Abramov and Mojzsis, 2009).”
From The Astrobiology Primer v2.0 (2016) · cites this paper as Abramov and Mojzsis, 2009
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Metadata
- Authors
- Abramov, O., & Mojzsis, S. J.
- Affiliations
- University of Colorado Boulder (US)
- Corresponding author
- Abramov, Oleg
- Venue
- Nature
- Published
- 2009-05
- Volume
- 459
- Issue
- 7245
- Pages
- 419-422
- ISSN
- 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-4687
- OpenAlex
- W2084870018
- Cited by
- 269
- References
- 31
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 25 · 2019: 17 · 2018: 25 · 2017: 16 · 2016: 20 · 2015: 18 · 2014: 13 · 2013: 19 · 2012: 19
- FWCI
- 8.24
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Lunar and Planetary Science Conference
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Origins and Evolution of Life
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Space and Planetary Science › Astro and Planetary Science
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Space and Planetary Science › Planetary Science and Exploration
- Keywords
- Late Heavy Bombardment, contact metamorphism, impact heating, subsurface habitability, hydrothermal activity, thermophiles, hyperthermophiles, origin of life, lunar crust, Hadean Earth, lunar cataclysm, meteorites
- MeSH terms
- Bacteria, Hot Temperature, Models, Biological, Phylogeny, RNA, Ribosomal, 16S, Sterilization, Time Factors, Moon, Ecosystem, Earth, Planet, Meteoroids, History, Ancient
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