217 citations · 670 across the 19 of their papers we have counts for
19 papers
Prebiotic Chemistry Insights for Dragonfly II: Thermodynamic Favorability of Nucleobases, Ribose, and Fatty Acids in Selk Crater on Titan
Ishaan Madan, Ben K. D. Pearce
Saturn's moon Titan is a prime destination for investigating prebiotic chemistry beyond Earth, particularly at impact crater sites where transient liquid water may have enabled aqu…
Prebiotic Chemistry Insights for Dragonfly: Thermodynamics of Amino Acid Synthesis in Selk Crater on Titan
Ishaan Madan, Ben K. D. Pearce
Saturnian moon Titan presents a compelling testbed for probing prebiotic chemistry beyond early Earth. Impact-generated melt pools provide transient aqueous habitats in an otherwis…
Deep Mantle-Atmosphere Coupling and Carbonaceous Bombardment: Options for Biomolecule Formation on an Oxidized Early Earth
Klaus Paschek, Thomas K. Henning, Karan Molaverdikhani +4
Understanding what environmental conditions prevailed on early Earth during the Hadean eon, and how this set the stage for the origins of life, remains a challenge. Geologic proces…
Towards Prebiotic Chemistry on Titan: Impact experiments on organic haze particles
Ben K. D. Pearce, Sarah M. Hörst, Christopher J. Cline +7
Impacts are critical to producing the aqueous environments necessary to stimulate prebiotic chemistry on Titan's surface. Furthermore, organic hazes resting on the surface are a li…
Organic hazes as a source of life's building blocks to warm little ponds on the Hadean Earth
Ben K. D. Pearce, Sarah M Hörst, Joshua A. Sebree +1
Over 4 billion years ago, Earth is thought to have been a hazy world akin to Saturn's moon Titan. The organic hazes in the atmosphere at this time could contain a vast inventory of…
What it takes to solve the Origin(s) of Life: An integrated review of techniques
OoLEN, Silke Asche, Carla Bautista +35
Understanding the origin(s) of life (OoL) is a fundamental challenge for science in the 21st century. Research on OoL spans many disciplines, including chemistry, physics, biology,…
An experimental and theoretical investigation of HCN production in the Hadean Earth atmosphere
Ben K. D. Pearce, Chao He, Sarah M. Hörst
A critical early stage for the origin of life on Earth may have involved the production of hydrogen cyanide (HCN) in a reducing, predominantly H atmosphere. HCN is crucial for…
Possible Ribose Synthesis in Carbonaceous Planetesimals
Klaus Paschek, Kai Kohler, Ben K. D. Pearce +5
The origin of life might be sparked by the polymerization of the first RNA molecules in Darwinian ponds during wet-dry cycles. The key life-building block ribose was found in carbo…
Towards RNA life on Early Earth: From atmospheric HCN to biomolecule production in warm little ponds
Ben K. D. Pearce, Karan Molaverdikhani, Ralph E. Pudritz +2
The origin of life on Earth involves the early appearance of an information-containing molecule such as RNA. The basic building blocks of RNA could have been delivered by carbon-ri…
Meteorites and the RNA World: Synthesis of Nucleobases in Carbonaceous Planetesimals and the Role of Initial Volatile Content
Klaus Paschek, Dmitry A. Semenov, Ben K. D. Pearce +3
Prebiotic molecules, fundamental building blocks for the origin of life, have been found in carbonaceous chondrites. The exogenous delivery of these organic molecules onto the Hade…
CRAHCN-O: A Consistent Reduced Atmospheric Hybrid Chemical Network Oxygen Extension for Hydrogen Cyanide and Formaldehyde Chemistry in CO2-, N2-, H2O-, CH4-, and H2-Dominated Atmospheres
Ben K. D. Pearce, Paul W. Ayers, Ralph E. Pudritz
Hydrogen cyanide (HCN) and formaldehyde (H2CO) are key precursors to biomolecules such as nucleobases and amino acids in planetary atmospheres; However, many reactions which produc…
HCN production in Titan's Atmosphere: Coupling quantum chemistry and disequilibrium atmospheric modeling
Ben K. D. Pearce, Karan Molaverdikhani, Ralph E. Pudritz +2
Hydrogen cyanide (HCN) is a critical reactive source of nitrogen for building key biomolecules relevant for the origin of life. Still, many HCN reactions remain uncharacterized by…
A Consistent Reduced Network for HCN Chemistry in Early Earth and Titan Atmospheres: Quantum Calculations of Reaction Rate Coefficients
Ben K. D. Pearce, Paul W. Ayers, Ralph E. Pudritz
HCN is a key ingredient for synthesizing biomolecules such as nucleobases and amino acids. We calculate 42 reaction rate coefficients directly involved with or in competition with…
Meteoritic Abundances of Fatty Acids and Potential Reaction Pathways in Planetesimals
James C. -Y. Lai, Ben K. D. Pearce, Ralph E. Pudritz +1
The origin of fatty acids on the prebiotic Earth is important as they likely formed the encapsulating membranes of the first protocells. Carbon-rich meteorites (i.e., carbonaceous…
Constraining the Time Interval for the Origin of Life on Earth
Ben K. D. Pearce, Andrew S. Tupper, Ralph E. Pudritz +1
Estimates of the time at which life arose on Earth make use of two types of evidence. First, astrophysical and geophysical studies provide a timescale for the formation of Earth an…
Origin of the RNA World: The Fate of Nucleobases in Warm Little Ponds
Ben K. D. Pearce, Ralph E. Pudritz, Dmitry A. Semenov +1
Prior to the origin of simple cellular life, the building blocks of RNA (nucleotides) had to form and polymerize in favourable environments on the early Earth. At this time, meteor…
Meteorites and the RNA World: A Thermodynamic Model of Nucleobase Synthesis within Planetesimals
Ben K. D. Pearce, Ralph E. Pudritz
The possible meteorite parent body origin of Earth's pregenetic nucleobases is substantiated by the guanine (G), adenine (A) and uracil (U) measured in various meteorites. Cytosine…
Nature's Starships II: Simulating the Synthesis of Amino Acids in Meteorite Parent Bodies
Alyssa K. Cobb, Ralph E. Pudritz, Ben K. D. Pearce
Carbonaceous chondrite meteorites are known for having high water and organic material contents, including amino acids. Here we address the origin of amino acids in the warm interi…
Seeding the Pregenetic Earth: Meteoritic Abundances of Nucleobases and Potential Reaction Pathways
Ben K. D. Pearce, Ralph E. Pudritz
Carbonaceous chondrites are a class of meteorite known for having a high content of water and organics. In this study, abundances of the nucleobases, i.e., the building blocks of R…